Some of you followed on Facebook my adventure by boat, bajaji, bus and begging a lift to Uganda ... now for a bit about what I got up to in Uganda working with the Amigos team...
When my bus from Mwanza to Kampala was cancelled, I rushed back from the church on a motorbike to board the overnight Mwanza-to-Bukoba Lake Victoria ferry. I found myself in a little sleeper cabin with 4 little bunks with 4 mamas and a toddler, a lifejacket and a rather wet floor! We arrived at sunrise, which was beautiful... and then it was straight into a world of chaos trying to get my 2 huge suitcases (full of honey jars, beekeeping equipment, oils and beeswax and a large sack full of Dorcus Dresses) and backpack off the boat and through the mud and scrum of people to find a lift to the bus stand (about a 10 minute drive away). Finally, I was squeezed on a minibus... sitting 5-across in a row for three, for the 2 hour journey to the border. I then lugged my luggage across the border ... and after 2 hours in the visa lineups, I discovered there was no bus to Kampala. Thankfully, a group of Brits from the Newbury Rotary ahead of me in the line agreed to squeeze me in the back of their vehicle, with my luggage on the roof. After a 10-hour drive on terrible roads in torrential rain and then gridlock and getting lost in Kampala, we finally got to their hotel destination at 7:30pm. I then got a taxi to take me to Kira Farm and was extremely relieved to arrive at 9:15pm ... with all my stuff completely soaked! Travelling is not for the faint-hearted!
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| Getting settled for the night on the ferry! |
It was wonderful to be back at Kira Farm with the Amigos team (as most of you probably know, this is the charity Tim works for, supporting development for disadvantaged communities across Uganda). My focus on arriving was to work with Lydia, Isaiah and Mwajuma on developing a plan for a value-added beeswax product project for Kira. They were a fantastic team to work with ... and in those first few days we thought through business plans and ideas and did some crazy Kampala city market exploring and shopping!
Elephants and Bees at Murchison Falls National Park
It was then time to head to the airport to meet Tim arriving from his travels working with the new Amigos church partnership in South Sudan, and together with Josh (Kira Farm Centre Manager), we drove the 5 hours to Masindi on the edge of the Murchison Falls National Park. It was great to catch up with Tim after 3 weeks apart ... and we had lots to catch up on! And it was good to be working together again! We spent our first day with Maureen (Amigos rural beekeeping extension coordinator) and the Mungu ni Mwema ("God is Good") Beekeepers group in Kigaragara, a group we had visited together 2 years ago when they invited us and presented their ideas and plans for a beekeeping project to protect their village from the elephants who invade from the game park during harvest season, destroying crops and injuring and killing people.
Elephants are terrified of bees, so hanging hives on wires around crop fields surrounding villages is a "win-win-win" solution to protecting crops, livelihoods and people from attack, increasing crop yields through pollination and generating income through honey and wax sales! It was so wonderful to see all that the group had done since that day we first met ... the group is now helped by seven previous Kira students who have been through a year of beekeeping training and the group is keen and enthusiastic... and have been patiently waiting for this project to get going through many delays that were no fault of theirs! In April this year they hung 100 hives made by the carpentry and beekeeping trainees at Kira Farm; they hung them at a point where the elephants are known to break into the fields and enter the village. We had a good afternoon inspecting the hives which are doing well, with the first 18 colonised with bees. For the first time it was actually a good thing to find the bees fairly aggressive as it means they will do the job! While we wait until later this month to see if the elephants are deterred by the bees, it was great to see that the bees have already deterred the fierce baboons who have been wreaking havoc in the fields and even mauling children. We had a training session afterwards talking about the how bees actually make the honey and produce wax and about all the extended benefits of beekeeping! This is such a fantastic project to be part of and I am looking forward to seeing how it all progresses and develops and the impact it will have for the beekeepers and their village and also over time, surrounding villages.
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| The Kigaragara Beekeepers |
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| Inspecting the hives |
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| The Elephant Hive Fence |
The next day we were again in Kigaragara with the Mungu ni Mwema group at the village chairman's house for a day of training on making various value-added beeswax products. While many people think about honey as a benefit of a beekeeping project, most don't think about the benefit of beeswax ... both for income-generation and home use. We had a great time together making various natural beeswax balms and lotion bars for cosmetic and medicinal purposes. In their prime location near the main gate to Murchison Falls National Park, we hope they will be able to market beautiful beeswax products and delicious honey to sell to tourists on they way for a game drive!
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| Beeswax product Training |
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| Enjoying the natural beeswax balms! |
We also had time in Kigunia 2, a neighbouring village that Amigos is just beginning to work with. We met with the Farming Group and on the Sunday, Tim preached in the Kigunia Church (which was translated twice over into two more languages!) and we thoroughly enjoyed the exuberant singing and dancing!
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| The Kigunia Farming Group |
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| The Kigunia Church |
Back at Kira Farm, I rejoined my small team and training and production began in earnest! We made a variety of candles, beeswraps and various balms and are looking forward to seeing how value-added beeswax products training can be included as part of the beekeeping course for trainees at Kira and incorporated with business studies could become an income-generating project to support the running costs of the training centre.
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| Candle-dipping |
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The finished beeswax products!
(I really like the Elephant Paw Bars!) |
And finally, while in Uganda, it was a real blessing and a bonus to be able to catch up with my long-time friend from Canada, Adrienne! Wonderful to be able to meet up for breakfast in Kampala!
Catch up on the previous blog posts:
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