You have been lost.

The title: a common expression used to greet someone who has not been seen in several days – or in our case, many weeks. Sorry it has been so long!

Where to begin. Well...

Rubingo

Business trip! Entirely on Patrick’s (LBDC General Manager) suggestion, we managed to make it to Rubingo, another ACTS project area on business. And, we were on time for a party!

LBDC has leased land to start up gardens for widows from communities around the lake who do not have enough land to support themselves and their children. Staff at Rubingo have been running a similar project there for several years now. So, we got in our truck with Ben, the Agroforestry Manager, and headed to Rubingo. An eventful drive due to many pot holes, speed bumps that left you airborn above 10 km/h and a slippery slope that defeated our truck until we finally managed to get the stubborn thing to go into 4 wheel drive. It was very informative, a great chance for both the Ugandan staff and Canadian interns to talk and share ideas. We also unexpectedly got to visit a local fish farm. We had originally planned to return to Kabale early the next morning, but Perez, one of the Rubingo staff had other ideas about where our truck should go, “we need two trucks tomorrow? God has provided a truck!”.

To the left: A visit to the fish ponds (visible in the centre of the photo)

That night, the interns at Rubingo threw a birthday party to celebrate all of the Rubingo staff birthdays for October, November and December. A favourite among the Ugandans that night was “pin the tail on the goat”; not so successful was charades – until the Ugandans started playing their own version, which had the Canadians completely confused. The night was a lot of fun, ending in true Ugandan style with speeches and a dance party.

Mugyera

Somehow on Saturday, we found ourselves seated facing the congregation in a massive church for a 6 hour long confirmation service…all in Rukiga, except for the speeches that we all had to give a the beginning of the service – which were then translated into Rukiga. The entire day was 10 hours start to finish, as we were invited to eat meals with the Bishop both before and after the service. Both meals included a large spread of food: matooke (mashed plantains), rice, posho (maize, flour, porridge type thing), hard boiled eggs, chicken, goat stew, ground nut (peanut) sauce, bread, avocado, roasted goat liver and kidney and tea.

After the service, we were surrounded by a large crowd of children, whose English consisted primarily of “how are you muzungu?” “I am fine”, mostly they just wanted to stare at us. We felt as though we were exotic animals at the zoo.

Rukiga Lessons

We thought it was about time that we got serious about Rukiga (pronounced ruchiga), the local language here. So, we hired a tutor named Grace. Our lessons, 3 hours each twice a week, have been quite amusing. We are pretty hopeless when it comes to learning this language…we’re having difficulty because there doesn’t seem to be too many rules.. nothing is the same twice – which has us thoroughly confused most of the time. We thought we’d share a few of our favourite sentences we learned:

Nkaza kuhinga kandi namubugeine omunyongorgwa (“I was digging and I met a worm”)

Nkiita enshohera ne engaro yangye (“I killed a housefly using my hand”)

Among the many crazy sentences, we learned some useful vocabulary…but our memory thus far hasn’t lent itself to Rukiga very well.

Our lessons are on the mainland, so we’ve enjoyed the paddle in a dugout canoe. We use the Bushara Island Camp dugouts, some that have proved quite stubborn….good times, we always have a good laugh as we adjust to the new shape of each canoe. The paddle to the mainland is gorgeous. Today, after our lesson, we got caught in the middle of a thunder storm out in the middle of the lake…. after seeing a fork of lightning, we hightailed it for shore…scary. It’s official, learning Rukiga almost killed us!

Pigs
The agroforestry program gave away 3 piglets this month (photo below - Ben, the Agroforestry Manager, is on the left), and there were 3 more born.















We love business trips!
Inspired by the success of our Rubingo trip, some of the other interns have been organizing business trips of their own to Bushara. Our first visitor was Ryan, who came from Nyakigyera to gather information for a water project proposal for Lake Bunyonyi. Water project...around a lake... genius... The lake is a good water source; however, several communities are located high in the hills, with a 2-3 hour walk, uphill, with a 20L jerrycan, to get water. Ryan surveyed these communities for the possibility of rainwater catchment tanks.

One of the best times and places to meet with a community is at a Sunday church service...so, that is where we found ourselves on Sunday. Fortunately, the service did not last 6 hours...and was followed by a rather amusing afternoon.


Highlights: see the Bufuka Orphan Care Dance Group perform again, this time with Patrick joining in and some goats watching the show; having our hair done by some kids; watching a goat give away; enjoying a Ugandan meal followed by our Rukiga dancing debut, much to the delight of the villagers. Ryan braved 2 giant mugs of obushera, a local drink made from fermented sorghum. We have not developed a taste for it yet.


Swimming Lessons
We presented a proposal for swim camps to be run during the school holidays in December and January to the LBDC managers, which was well received. So, we are into the planning stages, working to arrange meetings with the communities where we will be running the camps, trying to organize registration, planning the camp curriculum, and of course, practicing teaching.

Bryony has been teaching with Norman since the end of October; after many lessons cancelled due to rain, Emily finally made it out last week. It is quite the experience. A lesson consists of canoeing to the community, then stripping down to our swimming outfits - which consist of board shorts and a rash guard - apparently very amusing. The lake drops off very quickly in most areas, so shallow areas big enough to teach are few and far between. So, the kids are taught in small groups. The kids wear their underwear, or nothing at all for the lessons.. good thing Bryony didn't go through with her idea to just "wear what the locals wear".. Lessons are quite chaotic, and usually attract quite the audience. Bazungu swimming = great entertainment. Lessons are complicated by the fact that we know very little Rukiga, so Norman has to translate instructions and feedback. Muzungu demonstrations of skills are typically met with gales of laughter. Typical duration of a lesson? Until we're so cold we can't feel our hands.

Widows Gardens
The widows have been mobilized! Tuesday, about 75 widows from various communities around the lake came to Bushara for a first meeting about the widows gardens being started by LBDC. LBDC has leased 55 plots of land on Bwama Island, where the agroforestry nursery is. The widows will each be assigned a piece of land, which they will be able to plant and harvest to supplement their incomes and diets. The widows will each be part of a community group which will collect fees to make group purchases and finance microloans, and eventually, take over the lease of the land after 5 years. The meeting was a success - the widows responded well to the ideas and will be meeting at Bwama next week. Although the meeting was entirely in Rukiga, it was interesting for us to see how community meetings function.