An October in Kapchorwa

Scene : *Just imagine the scene at the end of the Sound of Music when the Von Trapp family is coming over the hill in the Swiss Alps or the book Heidi also taking place in the Alps.....Kapchorwa greatly resembled those scenes and I often found myself tempted to go frolicking through the fields singing away.*
Mornings were filled with the sound of a particular cock crowing starting at 5am and continuing for the rest of the day and gravel crunching outside my door as the voices of Juliet (our cook/housekeeper/mother) and James (our security guard) began to speak loudly about something or another, all in Kubsabiny Me, finally getting out of bed continuing to concoct my plan for murdering the rooster, but never actually following through...alternatively, just 'gently' throwing a couple of rocks at it without actually hitting the intended target....at least not every time:) As I would be brushing my teeth, I could see Juliet in the corner of my eye with a bucket full of steaming water rushing toward the bathroom. As she emerged from the bathroom I instinctly knew what would happen next..."Sarah! Bath!!" and she would jut out her index finger in the direction of the bathroom as my forced daily bucket bath awaited me. I would pout to myself and grumble "I'm coming" as I drug my feet all the way to the bathroom. What if I wanted to be dirty and smelly? Just one day??? Nope. Not a chance. Juliet may not have known much English, but she definitely knew how to communicate what she wanted and trust me...she was not one to be reckoned with. So I just took the bath. One day I will look back and thank her, I'm sure. My mother would appreciate the fact that I was well looked after and she very much has Juliet to thank.

I was setting a HUGE fashion statement up there in the mountains as well...and I must say. I've grown rather fond of the combination of flannel + skirt (cultural thing...apparently I would be seen as a prostitute if I wore trousers and I definitely wouldn't want that) +leggings + rubber boots and I'm thinking of trying to start it up in Washington...I could be a trend setter.....or possibly end up in the 'worst dress' edition of the Seattle Weekly. Anyway, it was necessary for the flannel and leggings because the climate up there was significantly colder and rainier than most of Uganda. The weather was so predictable though because since we were at the top of the mountain, we could see the dark ominous clouds of death coming up over the hills towards us tauting us with their gifts of destruction (okay, I may be just a slight overdramatic). Thus, we knew we probably had about a half hour to an hour before we would would get bombarded with rain pellets the size of spit wads and wind that would surely direct them right in our faces. Often we even received intense electrical storms with these clouds of death...just a great packaged deal....you get spit wad rain AND thunder and lightening striking every 10 seconds and only being 1/4 mile away. Many times did we contemplate whether the huge water tank standing only 20 feet from us would ever be the recipient of stuck a bolt....unfortunately nothing in our perimeter was zapped. The previous definition of the weather should definitely give reason for my daily footwear. Now these are not those dainty little rubber boots that apparently all the rage in the Pacific Northwest pink with polka dots that girls wear even when its NOT raining...no....these are hard-core black, up-to-your-knees, with the same tread on the soles as hiking boots. Yes. I was that cool.

Following breakfast, I would proceed to participate in the daily Food for the Hungry staff devotions. This would always include singing a few songs from a songbook called 'Uganda Youth Praise' to start out devotions. Various renditions of hymns sung in slightly different time, beat and pronunciation than I was used to..."burdens are lifted at Cal-E-vary", et al. Even their own rendition and multiple verses of 'Kumbaya' was often a top favorite and often picked. The first time we sang it, I started giggling like a little girl and peeked up at Kyle only to find his reaction the same as mine. We glanced at each other wondering if we were really singing this song for serious. I eventually grew very fond of the song that is often thought of as being sung around the campfire. It actually is such a spiritially impacting song...don't believe me, go look up the other verses to it. I promise it will change your life :)

It got dark around 7pm and having no electricity, we were forced to use laterns (oh darn...). I felt oh-so-like Laura Ingles Wilder as I used it to light my way to the outdoor latrine (okay it wasn't completely out of necessity though because we had a perfeclty good working Western flushing toilet inside the office...honestly I just felt more hard-core...squatty-potty style:)). It was a nightly ritual for me to bring my latern to Kyle's room and we had our little lanterns sitting on a table between our chairs. Very quaint. I must say I felt quite like an old British couple...the only thing missing was the tea and crumpets. Oh, and of course the accent (minor detail). Periodically, we would hear the whistling and singing of teenage girls and boys as they practiced their ritual dances for the upcoming circumcision ceremonies in December. Often we would sneak ouside in the pitch black and try to spy on the dances going on around us, but all we could see were the outlines of dark shadows from which loud voices seemed to be coming from as they passed by right along the road in front of us. Didn't help that it was so dark we couldn't even see our hands in front of our faces and were frequently running into large objects (like the water barrel or the truck) or each other....where's the night vision goggles when you really need them? Our friend the donkey (affectionately known as Mr. Jackass) provided our nightly background music to soothe us to sleep. There is nothing quite like the loud (and might I add, tone deaf) braying of a donkey to send you off to dreamland in peace (or just to scare the bejeebers out of you when you are trying to spy on dancing people in the road and you don't realize the donkey is there until you hear the loud and unnerving noise causing you to check pants to make sure you haven't wet yourself). I think he was in cohorts with the rooster. Sheesh, it was just a couple rocks....a day:)

Yes, these were my routine (well not necessarily 'routine' because I didn't plan them, they just sort of happened everyday) daily happenings during my month in Kapchorwa and they were ever so endearing by the end of my time. You are probably wondering..."so, what were you actually doing in Kapchorwa besides vacationing and hiking up in the mountains?". Well, let me tell you, it was one of the most amazing months I've ever experienced and it wasn't just because of my trendy outfits either:) I was actually doing research for Food for the Hungry up there in the area of AgroForestry. One of the volunteer staff, Alex, was assigned to help me in my research and he definitely DID help me greatly. I was researching crops and fruits in the area, energy-saving stoves, coffee trees, soil erosion and ideas for sustainability in Kapchorwa. So basically I was going around to different farmers everday and researching what crops they are growing, their yields, challenges, farming strategies, etc. See, all the people there are all displaced people and were placed in this area after being moved down from the National Park or others were forced up the mountain, to this area, because of the Karamajong who are violent cattle raiders near the area. Most of these tribes were pastoralists and were faced with having to start cultivating without having the appropriate knowledge of farming. So, they chopped down most of the trees in the area and burned them so they could plant fields of crops. This happened about 25 years ago and as a result of this deforestation, there is significant soil erosion occuring causing rivers to become polluted and when it rains heavily, landslides often occur which usually kill cattle and destroy crops. Also because of the lack of trees, there is not enough wood for building and for using to cook. Now, women and children have to go deeper into the National Park forest to get firewood and often times are abused, fined, or sometimes raped by the park rangers up there.

These are reasons I was doing research. The possibility of families installing energy-saving stoves would reduce the use of firewood significantly and also prevent many respiratory problems caused by open fire pits used for cooking in the huts. Also I was able to research and suggest ways for these farmers to generate more income for their crops and give suggestions about which crops would bring in the most cash and also provide food for the family. It was so, so interesting and I absolutely LOVED it....it was nice to know that what I was researching is actually going to be used by FHI as far as their involvement in assisting these farmers. My eyes were definitely opened up greatly to the realities of life and raised a lot of questions and spurred some ideas in myself. Such an amazing learning experience and I met some beautiful people in the process that I will be erased from my memory. Since it was such a long month packed full of great stories, I decided that I'll spread them out over a couple weeks or so that way I won't have written a book in the process of writing this one blog post....so stay tuned for further stories from the mountains.......