Mourning into Joy on Mothering Sunday

It has been such a privilege being with groups of mothers while I've been away. In Tanzania now, it has been wonderful to catch up with the group of mamas I know best! I will tell you more about the Upendo wa Mama group (with albinism or children who have albinism) and what they have been up to soon! But now I want to tell you a bit about the amazing group of mamas I met for the first time this week on Kome Island ...

The Jikomboe Women of Nyamkolechiwa

The Jikomboe Women Beekeepers group is made up of over twenty women from the village of Nyamkolechiwa on Kome Island. Some of the mamas are there with their grown daughters carrying their grandchildren on their back. They are all farmers, working so hard to produce food from the land. They came together through the Emmanuel International Health Project started by Simon and Victoria Ewing a few years ago and formed a village savings and loans scheme. Recently, they asked if they could learn how to become beekeepers ... and so now they are! Emmanuel International and Bees Abroad are partnering to train and equip them, and Bhatendi and Justina are working with them to do this and so much more! They are such a lovely and very strong group of mamas ... and just so much fun! 

Some the group at their apiary

There was so much laughter throughout the day that I spent with them. Plans were upset by a long rain in the morning, but as soon as they could, they worked together to produce an amazing lunch for all of us, laughing all the while! They laughed and sang as they came together for a meeting, peals of laughter as they presented me with (and wrapped me up in) khangas. They laughed particularly hard as they all tried on beesuits for the first time! Some mamas were struggling and the creasing up didn't help matters! For women who wear flip flops and khangas, suits with headveils, gumboots and gloves are all very foreign and difficult to figure out! Women were literally rolling on the ground in laughter! And then when they looked at each other in this new apparell ... well it was absolutely hilarious! 

But for these mamas, life has not been easy or full of laughter. One mama, Nyabwire, shared her story of how as a child, she had to drop out of school due to constant illness. She entered a forced marriage at a very early age, but after the birth of her daughter, her husband died. Later she married again, but he also died before she bore another child. Her late husband's parents took everything from her, leaving her and her daughter grieving and destitute. With her daughter, Nyabwire moved to live with her brother, but then his house and everything in in burned to the ground. The sadness and grief she carried was so evident to Bhatendi and Justina, who are working with the group in so many ways. But to cut a long story very short, Bhatendi said she had never seen this woman laugh like she did on this day we shared this week. At the end of the day, she said to Bhatendi and Justina that she had never been so happy as she was this day. 

Another woman in the group is a grandmother, and is struggling to care for eighteen grandchildren in her care ... life is not easy, and she has been tired and burdened. But she stood to speak at the meeting  (in the local language of Kizinza, so it had to be translated into Swahili for those of us not from the village!), and her joy was in her smile! In coming together and learning together, they are finding joy! I shared Psalm 19 with them which was particularly appropriate with its' reference to honey! Sweeter than honey from the honeycomb is the word of the Lord ... and as it says in verse 8, it gives joy to the heart. And truly as these mothers ate together, laughed together, learned at the hive together, their deep joy despite circumstances and situations was so vividly evident! 

I know many are finding Mother's Day difficult. But I hope, like these beautiful mamas, we can all be encouraged to find this joy that is deep and meaningful, as we say "Happy" Mother's Day!

And if you would like to support these mamas (and a new group of Kome Island women we will be starting with next month) in some way, please get in touch with me. Your prayers and support for this project make such a difference to each mama!

Preparing lunch

Eating lunch together in the church

Washing the dishes

Wild Rat is actually very tasty!

One of my weekly activities in Bath now is with the wonderful kitchen team of cooks to prepare a mid-week community meal at our church. I think of them all on Wednesday's when I know they will be preparing and then serving the meal ... and think of the amazing oven and commerical dishwasher in the purpose-built kitchen! But I just love how the people here are even more hospitable with the limited equipment, ingredients and space they have! We have so enjoyed such amazing hospitality wherever we have gone. A warm welcome with food and so much singing and dancing!

It was such a delight to meet Beatrice (pictured below with the cow she purchased through the village groups savings and loans scheme) who was so proud to show us her fuel-efficient stove which allows her to cook with far less firewood and in a far healthier environment without all the smoke. She has also set up a wooden rack outside for solar drying her dishes, and a tippy-tap for washing hands. 

With Beatrice and her cow!

Beatrice's fuel-efficient stove

Tippy Tap for handwashing

We have also really enjoyed the food ... I finally had my first Rolex! And the posho and delicious groundnut sauce! Amazing fresh fruits ...and another first for me was wild rat! I didn't know what it was when I ate it ... which was probably a good thing! But it was honestly really tasty! 

A giant wild rat

Yummy Rolex

All the Ugandan trimmings! (posho, beans, cassava, g-nut sauce, matoke, millet bread....)

While we were in Gulu, Uganda, Tim and I were delighted to meet up again with our friends Mike and Marianne and their son, Elias, working there with Emmanuel International. We realised when we arrived at their home, that they were just around corner from Titus’ home and the Amigos Gulu office! It was great to introduce everyone as Mike and Marianne welcomed us and the guys with us from the Amigos team when we arrived in Gulu. Tim and I were also able to spend another evening with them over a meal and catch up with them. 

The Amigos team with the Botting Family in Gulu

Reading a new book from Sue Fallon with Elias at bedtime!

The only frustrating thing about this wonderful visit is that time is very short and we have such a full schedule of things to pack in! I was disappointed to miss seeing good friends in Uganda while I was so close! But I am looking forward to hopefully being able to come back before too long and have some extra time to visit Jennie and Adrienne and also meet new friends through connections in Monkton Combe!

So often in the UK, as in many places I am sure, we feel the pressure to have the perfect kitchen, the perfect dishes, lots of space, prepare the "perfect" meal ...or surely we cannot offer hospitality ... but here it is so simple. You just offer what you have and enjoy being with one another in whatever space you have. Life is meant to be shared in community!

Hot at the Hives

I am still blogging behind! But I have to tell you about the beekeeping we did in Olano village, about an hour outside Gulu (no elephants here!).

Amigos started this beekeeping group a number of years ago and we were delighted to visit and see how they were getting on! The women were as thrilled to see me beekeeping as I was to see them doing it (women beekeepers are in the minority here!!) We arrived in the heat of the day ... so had a meeting under the shade of a tree and then once again enjoyed some wonderful hospitality with posho and beans and meat in the slight coolness of the grass-covered mud hut. But still at 4pm it was pushing 36 degrees, so with my long sleeve sweater, beesuits and boots, I was sweltering walking across the scorched fields to the hives! 

Ready to head to the hives

It was wonderful to see their 20 hives colonised and most with lots of honeycomb! We opened a few hives to have a look and were thrilled to harvest some good capped honey from one. We are still a little early for main harvest, but it is looking very good! We stopped working the hives a little sooner than planned as a lone bull was getting rather close and acting in a peculiarly agitated fashion ... and not wishing to see the bull stung for fear of what might ensue, it seemed wise for us to clear out! 

Beautiful honey ready to harvest!

Photo credits: Joshua (Amigos)

Elephants and Bees

Can you spot elephants in the background?

No, neither did we! But the bush you see in the background is in the Murchison Falls gamepark, and the big problem for Kigaragara village farmers is that the elephants come from that bush and destroy livelihoods as they eat and trample the crops from entire fields. Food for the year is wiped out in one night. This village community group have asked us to help them learn how to become beekeepers and have shown brilliant initiative to get this project started! The plan will be to establish a "bee-fence" (hives hanging on a wire that stretches across the length of the fields along the park border) that will not only bring in valuable honey, but will keep the elephants away. 

Everyone is looking to the left corner of the edge of the field,
the usual point of entry for the elephants.

Irene (left) farms this plot of land at the elephant's entrance

Irene's home

I will write more about this later (as I find it all rather fascinating!) but basically, elephants are terrified of bees and this project will protect the farms from mass destruction and the elephants from poisoning and shooting. It will generate income through honey and value-added products and be integrated with village savings and loans schemes and conservation agriculture. Win-win! 

During our meeting with the village group, the thunder rumbled and the heavens opened! Everyone dashed for shelter. After about 10 minutes, the sun was back out and we continued! And see the video to see how the meeting ended! 

A quick tourist photo with Joshua at the park gate!

Uganda: Village to Village

We have had an amazing week in Uganda! But my great plan to post all about it on the blog has not been so successful; we have had limited access to internet and without VPN's, no access to Facebook in Uganda. But we have been making the most of every opportunity which was far more important. I am now off to Tanzania and with a brief moment of power and internet access, I wanted to post a brief hello! I am on my way to Mwanza, leaving Tim who will stay in Uganda for another week. 

We have seen so many wonderful people visiting community groups in villages around Masindi and Gulu, and heard so many stories, it is impossible to know where to start! 

After meeting the current students (who arrived only a month ago) at Kira Farm, where the vocational training centre is, it was was really lovely to meet with previous trainees as we passed through villages in the northern regions of Uganda. The change in these young people is incredible and their testimony coming out of terrible pain and hardship is inspirational. They are now in their home villages again, and are bringing the same transformation they experienced to their communities. 

Winnie, for example has become a seamstress and has returned to her village and set up her own tailoring business in a rented space. She is now training another young girl how to sew and seeking to buy a second machine. 

Jimmy's is quite a long, traumatic story which I won't go into here. He and his family are not able to live in their home village and have struggled for many years. But now, after returning with farming skills and savings from his training and following internship at Kira Farm, he has been able to purchase land to farm and set up a pig project and is now supporting his mum, grandma and sisters. He and Winnie have started to bring young people together for a Sunday service each week. 

Jimmy (centre) with Amigos leaders Godwin and Joshua

Robert is the father of one of the boys currently in the Kira trainee program. He is in the conservation agriculture group. Not long ago, as he was working with some machinery, his entire hand was severed. This cheerful, gracious man welcomed us to his village on the edge of Murchison Falls National Park and is excited to be part of a new beekeeping group which I will have to tell you about next time!

Finally for now, it was wonderful on Sunday to be with the church in Kinene village. So much exhuberant worship under a shea nut tree! There was much singing and dancing, preaching and testimonies and prayer. And a farming meeting followed the service with a report on the conservation agriculture and water projects ... followed by a visit to the boreholes. This was followed by a delicious lunch cooked by the women. They have given me seeds to plant the delicious vegetable we ate as well as sim sim seeds and groundnuts. We really enjoyed engaging in cooking conversation in our stilted English/Acholi/sign language! 

The Amigos team is doing an amazing job overseeing the training at Kira Farm and the community development across the northern regions of Uganda. It was such a privilege to see all they are doing and we have had so many good conversations about moving forward! 

A Warm Welcome to Kira Farm

We arrived at Kira Farm in the early hours of Tuesday morning and after a few hours sleep were roused by the drums and enthusiastic singing from the students and jumped quickly out of bed for 8am devotions! What a great group of fifty young people, mostly from communities in northern Uganda. They are here for a year of training in conservation farming, business and vocation skills and holistic life skills. The aim is that they return to their village as “community transformers” working closely with the churches that we are connected with there.

Some Ugandan coffee and sweet pineapple later, we had a guided tour of Kira. It was wonderful to see all that is happening … the training in the tailoring and carpentry workshops, the conservation agriculture in practice, urban farming, an amazing rabbit project and the goats.

One of the chefs cooking lunch on the fuel-efficient stove

Students out early working in their fields

In the afternoon while Tim had time with some of the trainers, I had an great time doing a beeswax workshop with 30 students and two wonderful women who give hairdressing and tailoring training and are full of great ideas! They are keen to keep to develop the vocational training program at Kira, and as we start new beekeeping projects, it will be fantastic to develop business and generate more income through honey and beeswax. The afternoon was a brief taster of some of the possibilities we can explore!

Students cutting beeswraps

With the trainers, Lydia and Mwajuma

Before dinner, we were treated to a cultural performance where students presented songs and dances from their tribes! Such a warm and enthusiastic welcome ... I will share the videos when I can! And the cultural learning continued after dinner, late into the evening with fireside talks and dramas about their local area customs and traditions. 

We have had two more incredible days since then but no electricity or internet! We were up at the at the crack of dawn the second morning to travel up to Masindi and have since had some really wonderful community visits. So many encouraging stories and exciting plans … we have just returned from a village on the edge of Murchison Falls National Park troubled by elephants destroying their crops. If you know me, you will know how very excited I am about this amazing group of people setting up a “bee fence”! But more on that next time…

On African Soil Again

Tim and I are on African soil again! And so I am temporarily reviving the blog to keep in touch with you all on what’s cookin’ not just in Tanzania… but also in Uganda!

I feel I owe you all some kind of epic catch-up! Since returning to the UK after living in Tanzania and blogging regularly, it has been a strange matter of starting a new life. Lockdowns and also not being able to get back to Canada didn’t help matters… and this has all meant there are so many friends and family that we just haven’t caught up with yet. We had hoped to send out a Christmas newsletter... and somehow didn’t get round to it. And then there was the other strange matter of deleting our email list for GDPR reasons when we finished our “role” … a list of precious names which was a source of life and love and support for so many years, just suddenly cut off in the click of a button. Even though we know you are all still there, it was an incredibly lonely and bereft moment! Somehow staying “in touch” with people far away while trying to make new friends with people geographically close seemed a very difficult thing. All this to say, as I revive this blog, we would love to get back in touch and this is a way of finding you all again!

Now skipping the epic catch-up (which would take the whole flight to relate), here in a nutshell is what’s cookin’ right now …

With Tim now CEO of Amigos Worldwide, we have come to meet the Ugandan team for the first time. We are very thankful for the girls’ school and have left them boarding there while we travel. (Yes, they are excited about being proper boarders, but no, they are not happy about being left behind and would very much rather be coming with us … but in the midst of GCSE and A-level mocks and exam preparation, it was not an option). Tim and I will be visiting the vocational training centre, Kira Farm, outside Kampala and then travelling north to visit communities where Amigos is working on sustainable community development projects and we will also look into future possibilities. I am looking forward to wearing my bee suit again! One of my new roles includes working with BeesAbroad, and it is exciting to be partnering (Amigos and BA) to develop beekeeping projects in the rural villages and a honey centre at Kira Farm.

After just over a week, while Tim stays another week in Uganda, travelling to Kaliro and I will travel down to Mwanza and stay a few weeks with the Emmanuel International team. I am so looking forward to catching up with them all and all the amazing work going on in the Mwanza region! There I will be working with Bhatendi on another partnership project (BA and EI) working through the churches developing beekeeping projects with women on Kome Island. I will also be working with my much-missed friends in the Upendo wa Mama group to see how we can develop The Hive.

So over the next month, follow along and I will do my best to update on what’s happening here! Please keep us and the people and communities we are meeting with in your prayers. Please feel free to share this blog with anyone you think might know us and be interested. And if you have a minute, please drop us a line, and we can be in touch!

We left at 1am early Monday morning and flew to Amsterdam to Kigali and then to Entebbe ... and collapsed into bed at 2am early Tuesday morning! This morning we are just delighted to meet everyone here at Kira Farm, hear the familiar African sounds, sing and dance to the African music by 8am, feel the sun and dirt on my very white toes ... and actually feel warm again!