Gardens, Visitors and We and They

Working with the Agriculture Team

On Friday I spent the day with Aida and Tony from the agriculture team at Salem. Aida is in charge of the gardens where they grow vegetables that are used by the guest house, the children’s home and for the staff lunch. Some of the vegetables are also sold off.

We harvested a large bin full of aubergines (egg plants as they call them here). We also picked greens for the staff lunch.

Then we went over to the medicine garden where they grow Artemisia which is harvested and dried to make tea as a relief and preventative for malaria. They also grow aloe vera, hibiscus, lemon grass, and several others - I can’t remember all the names.

We looked at the bee hives from a distance as the bees are not particularly approachable in the heat of the day. They harvest the honey as sell locally.  

One of the things that really surprised me was the G nuts. At home I know these as money nuts or peanuts. The monkey nuts that I know of are found in beige shells that are cracked to reveal nuts in a burgundy coloured coating. Everyone laughed at me when I said I thought these grow on trees and were nuts from a kind of pod – a bit like peas I suppose. They are G nuts here because they come from the ground. The stem of the plant is pulled up to expose the nut shells as a type of tuber that grows in the ground. I don’t have a picture now but will get one. The g nuts are an important part of the harvest and diet here and most small people grow some on their small plots of land. They are not eaten straight away but are slowly roasted over a charcoal fire with a small amount of salt, and then very often ground to make a sauce that is eaten with matooke (boiled green bananas). We experimented to roast them with a small bit of sugar – really nice, especially when there are no other sweet treats around.

Welsh Visitors

A group of teachers and students from Rhondda Cynon Taf arrived on Friday evening. It’s amazing that I come all this way and meet people who live 5 minutes down the road from me in Pencoed and Llanharry. The saying ‘it's a small world’ is quite significant. They had arranged a bus tour to some ancient rock paintings on Saturday and invited me along, and I gratefully accepted. The paintings are at a place called Nyero near Kumi http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/914/  . One of the village elders acted as guide and showed us around.

He said that the rock paintings were one of the first ever rock paintings completed about 7000 years ago, but I’m not sure about this.

The concentric circles are meant to symbolise the sun god and I think they are not too dissimilar to the Egyptian icons for Ra the sun god – which is not that far from here. You can also see on the paintings a boat on the river with people in it. The paintings were reportedly done with the sap from the cactus plant whose sap is quite rubbery, and is mixed with blood to give the red colouring.

As we walked between the rocks there was a large spider and web overour heads. it was 5 - 6 inches in diameter. We didnt hang around!

It was a beautiful setting and it’s a shame that it has been vandalised and spoiled over the years.

There are also some rock paintings quite close to where we are at Salem – I’d like to cycle to see those one weekend as well http://kampala.usembassy.gov/pr_09212010.html .

I thought you might also like to see what the ‘loo’ was like – a very nicely decorated pit latrine (you have to make sure you carry a supply of your own tissues).

There is also an official visit through PONT (as mentioned in earlier blog), by officials from Welsh Assembly Government as part of the Wales for Africa agenda. The focus of the visit is tree planting and climate change. I was invited to the Mount Elgon Hotel http://www.mountelgonhotel.com/  in Mbale where they are staying to have dinner on Saturday night. It was a good opportunity to summarise what I have done at Salem to date and to explain my findings and the objectives that I am working to over the 8 week placement. I hope they think they have made a good investment in me. 

From left to right is Patrick (from the hotel) Jon Townley (Wales for Africa WAG) John Griffiths AM http://www.assemblywales.org/memhome/mem-profile/mem-newport_east.htm, Elin, Me, Sarah, and John Harrington (on placement).

This poem was in a book in the volunteers house giving tips on Ugandan culture. I thought I would share it – I like it.

We and They

Rudyard Kipling

Father, Mother and me

Sister and Aunties say

All of the people like us are We,

And everyone else is They.

And They live over the sea

While we live over the way.

But – would you believe it?

They look upon WE

As only a sort of They!

We eat pork and beef

With cow-horn-handled knives.

They who gobble Their rice off a leaf

Are horrified out of Their lives;

While They who live up a tree,

Feast on grubs and clay,

(Isn’t it scandalous?) We look upon

As a simply disgusting They!

We eat kitcheny food.

We have doors that latch.

They drink milk or blood

Under an open thatch.

We have Doctors to fee

They have Wizards to pay.

And (impudent heathen!)

They look upon We

As a quite impossible They!

All good people agree

And all good people say,

All nice people, like Us, are We

And everyone else is They:

But if you cross over the sea,

Instead of over the way,

You may end (by think of it!)

Looking on WE

As only a sort of They!