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Row by Row
A collection of my thoughts, stories and images on agriculture and people culture from places around the world.
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From last weekend... Me: you can't go swimming now, the waves are way too big Damian: but I want to Me: well, the sun is going down, so we can't swim now, Damian: Mom, we can swim during the sunset time tooooo.., Ugh, 3 going on 13. I am doomed. (at Tiwi, Kenya) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Y_k3UD-8UXtwAS-tDL1XmGnsqujTWAJe64UE0/?igshid=z298if73jg7g
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View from the window, just an early morning drive to work :) (at Timau Forest) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv-7Sz2FJHyxC8KSoqOg2_0gYJFIWI_d2giwfE0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1m2xyk1t4q7ly
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Chameleon crawl (at Nyeri, Kenya) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv9HLnul7FJHODr8f_ohlNnu9wDwOsOBF1vIfE0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=slpzksj9sg44
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Just a little Sunday afternoon pool bubble sport. (at Malindi, Kenya) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvrOxEOlH92xqb-mPJBikryfSzjcLjL2_KQWIM0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1eoumrxr7yho4
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Our new sunrise view. Love it! (at Nyiri, Central, Kenya) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvlGAqml--houXe7XFLRxy7XmNArL9nRig-Oxk0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1gp5k4wpijwkc
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To Kenya!
So we are leaving Uganda for....Central Kenya! I have a new position with the One Acre Fund Kenya program, within their Program Design department. I’ll be leading a new-ish ‘expansion’ district, called the Mount Kenya region.
One Acre Fund has a goal of reaching every farming community in Kenya by 2030 - and this area in central Kenya is a key one for growth plans. We have already started there, another enterprising staff person got things going for a first season, and we are now in our second season in that area - and have already tripled in size. A lot of promising features there, but also what should hopefully be some fun-to-solve challenges.
That means we are moving as a family to Nyeri, which is a medium-size city, about 3 hours from Nairobi, right in between Mount Kenya National Park, and the Aberdares national park. Mountain land! You can imagine while I felt at home there. More on that later.
First up - I’m doing 3 weeks of new job orientation / onboarding, out of our Kenya headquarters, which is on the other side of the country, in the west, closer to Uganda. I did one week in the office, then 4 days on ‘homestay’, and now I’m back at the office.
Photos here are all from homestay! I spent 3 nights with a Field Director (she manages a district, which has about 5,000 farmers), also named Sarah. She hosted me where she lives, and I shadowed her work during the day. My new HQ team wanted me to see an example of a long-standing and high-performing OAF district, where farmers really like our services - we have worked in her area for I think 6-7 years.
It was an interesting week. I had mentally prepared for almost anything - all I knew was that she stayed in rented rooms in the small trading center where the district office is - since she left her home/family to take the promotion to Field Director in this nearby area. It went pretty well though. Certainly nothing fancy - but it was really cool to see how she lived - no power, (lots of solar lights), water from a well in an area shared with 4 neighbors, pit latrines and bucket baths...yet she was on her laptop and smartphone all the time. She got along well with her neighbors, who were business owners, a teacher...
Super interesting to see something similar to a rural lifestyle like I know from back in Peace Corps, but with a twist.
Not surprisingly, she was incredibly welcoming, friendly, wanted to know lots about me. The few kids in her little housing area maybe less so...they had actually never seen a white person up close before, and they were as terrified as some of the kids when I showed up for Peace Corps all those years ago. They all mostly came around by day 4, but of course I felt bad. Only consolation - at least they will be more prepared for the next ghostly white aberration they see?
Reply to this if you like, it goes to me, and I like emails!
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Goodbye Uganda
This is my last full week in Uganda. Just writing that makes it seem a little bit more real.
In a few days, we are starting the balls in motion for a family move to Kenya when I go first to start some new job orientation. I’m taking a new role, still with One Acre Fund...more on that later! I wanted to first write a little bit about our time in Uganda - writing helps me to process big stuff like this.
We arrived in Uganda in August of 2017 - a little over a year and half ago. We didn’t really know what was coming. Looking back on it - I did have lots of expectations - based on what I knew (from the outside) of the organization we were joining, from my visits to East Africa over the years, from tidbits people had told us or we had read about Uganda, and the town of Jinja, etc.
Some of those expectations turned out to be pretty accurate, some of them, very much not. And if I learned anything important from our moving-to-Uganda experience, it is that life doesn’t always go as planned. I think I knew that before - I mean, you don’t get to your mid-30s, and become a parent, without figuring that out. But maybe this is the first time that something that I had ‘planned’ for for so long, and had such hopes for, has gone so very differently, and I’ve had to really let go of a dream. That was hard.
Without getting into details that I don’t think are fun to put here - the work here in Uganda turned out to be really challenging. There were things about the program that required some serious re-thinking. There was office people-dynamics stuff. There were daily issues that I just couldn’t fix myself no matter how hard I tried. Have I learned something from all of it professionally? Yes. Would I repeat it? Definitely not.
Outside of work - we had a pretty big adventure to work through as a family. We were lucky in that we very quickly met many helpful and kind and fun people here in Jinja. A very quirky, unique and hodgepodge network that I don’t think we would have found anywhere else besides Jinja, Uganda. A town at the source of the Nile river where locals whose family has been here for decades, Ugandan workers from all over the country, whitewater kayakers, missionaries, business people, families adopting children, artists, yoga instructors, one-acre-funders....all mix and mingle.
We had to figure out how to live in a 3-bedroom house with a huge, tropical, yard, after living in a tiny 1-bedroom in New York City. We had to learn how to be good ‘bosses’ to the staff we hired to help us - the cleaner, nanny, security guards, driver...and how to live with that many people around. We had to learn how to function in a community where so much is done by word of mouth, by recommendation (not on yelp!), and where personal connections really matter. We had to learn how to maintain a ~20 year old truck, an even older house plumbing and electric system, and how to approach the many species of ants who also like to inhabit our house. We came very slowly to understand the background stress that comes from being in a place with systems that don’t function well - road maintenance, police, trash collection, social services...
All of that, while having a lot of fun at the same time. We were lucky enough to be able to explore the natural beauty of Uganda - the Nile River, the majestic and truly weird Rwenzori Mountains, the parks with wild African animals, a beautiful crater lake. Not to mention the daily beauty of sunrises, sunsets, flowers blooming everywhere. Running through rainstorms.
Our time here was shorter than expected - we had roughly planned for 3-5 years. But, writing this, I realize there was a lot packed into these 18 months. Greg and I are both feeling ready for what is next, and I think somewhat better prepared. And excited!
I hope to write more here as we make the move to Kenya. Maybe starting with the trek we will be making from here, over to Kenya, and across - the three of us, our dog, in our old car that we hope will get us there!
Please do comment, or reply, if you like, I enjoy hearing from anyone who is reading.
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One year - top 5 from Damian
1) All the animals are our friends. Except for lions, who may be outside at any time, especially when it’s dark, and these days especially during dinner. Geckos like the rain and monkeys like to jump and birds and bats both fly high in the sky.
2) Motorcycles are called bodas and they are the best thing in the world. I would ride one all day and night if I could.
3) Watermelon is good but you have to take out the seeds, pineapple is good, mangoes are good, bananas are good. Passionfruit is good and I can eat it with my spoon. If I listen and eat 2 bites of vegetables, I get to have more gooseberries or drink juice with a big straw.
4) The roads are tooooo bumpy but singing the ‘wheels on the bus’ song makes it fun and the engine is loud and goes ‘rumble rumble rumble’. Mom and dad are not nice because they won’t let me drive the car and they take the car keys away from me instead of sharing.
5) Rain is soooooooo fun to run in. But rain at night is loud and sometimes scary but when we are inside the thunder can’t get us and the rain makes the grass green and makes the gooseberries grow in our garden.
(thanks Dave and Janis for all the photos of Damian at school!)
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One Year
We moved to Jinja, Uganda just over a year ago. It has a been something of a wild 12-month ride. I haven’t written nearly as much as I’d have liked to, and I’m going to try to do it more, I like writing. My work this year has been intense and in many ways all-consuming - trying to see if we could get a new and struggling program to better provide services to 10,000 Ugandan farmer clients. We are now at the end of a season, and I’m able to step back and take a deep breath.
Realizing that it has been a year, I have been thinking about some of the things we have learned. My top-5 first, and then what I imagine Damian’s top 5 might be...coming next.
1) If you want to buy something, fix something, do something, you have to ask to figure out the best way to do it. Everything happens through word of mouth - on the street, on facebook, on whatsapp. No such thing as Home Depot or an accurate map, or Yelp.
2) The language of Luganda is wonderful and wonderfully hard to learn. There is a different past tense for things that happened since the sun came up. The time starts at sunrise at 0:oclock, so 6 o:clock is at (our) noon.There are different words for a sibling of the same sex and a sibling of a different sex. Making a plural depends on what class of word you are saying. When it rains, you say ‘the rain is raining’. Greg and I can say some things, but I can’t say we are particularly conversational.
3) Ugandans will tell you that they can do almost anything. Their claim has no relation to whether they can actually to that thing or not.
4) Living in rural-ish East Africa means living with all kinds of animal life. We have cows, goats, and chickens walking around our neighborhood..eating grass, giving birth, making noises. We have thousands of birds. For a few months, we had thousands of fruit bats living in all of the trees around our house. We have dogs, many dogs...guard dogs, pets, street dogs..for about a month they are in heat and mating and that is very loud. We have many kinds of ants - and they march around our yard and house in all kinds of crazy patterns.
5) Ugandans have no shame in asking for money that they need. They will ask for a raise, just to see what you will say. A big percentage, at least in our area of Uganda, live off of small loans, from family, friends, whoever. At any one time we’ve had loans out for at least one of the staff who works at our house...in the lean season and when school fees were due, they all took loans from us. We’ve slowly tried to figure out how to help, and have started a savings plan for 2 of our 5 house staff - accumulating money is something they very much struggle with.
And...bonus...top 6 new house recipes:
1) Jinja gin and tonic (with Uganda gin and juice from the grapefruits that grow in our yard)
2) Millet banana cinnamon pancakes
3) Cornmeal gooseberry pancakes
4) Pineapple fried rice (with really great pineapple)
5) Fresh pumpkin muffins
6) Pickled...green beans, beats, hot peppers, watermelon, cauliflower....
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Deliveries and...Drops
I haven’t put anything up here in awhile. Not because I didn’t want to, but because all my time and energy has gone to either work, or home and family, or eating/sleeping/running/surviving. :)
Oh, and a couple of little vacation get-aways...putting those up on facebook.
Since getting back to Uganda after Christmas, the work part of that has been relatively intense. Well, it was intense before Christmas too because it was all so new. Now I am not so new..it actually feels like I have been working in this job for so long that my past job seems like a fuzzy dream. It’s only been 6 months.
The time between January and now is the part of the year where we ask farmers to sign contracts with us to for the season, make a small downpayment on their loan by a certain date to ‘qualify’, and then we deliver farming inputs (maize seed, fertilizer, optional pesticide/drying tarps, storage bags, etc.) to every farmer that does.
This year we had a target of delivering to about 14,000 farmers (double the ~7,000 we worked with last year). That was ambitious, but based on what we should be aiming for to begin operating without a deficit in Uganda...and is based on a (very theoretical) number of potentially interested farmers in the areas where we work.
Well...we had ~13,000 farmers qualify by signing up and making their downpayments. I got to see our logistics team at work in February and March - they load trucks with inputs every morning for weeks...starting at 5am every day, to go out to each village where we have farmers enrolled.
I went to the warehouse once...not at 5am, but at around 6ish, and it was pretty cool to see all of those bags getting loaded and organized. I also went out twice to see farmers getting their deliveries, which was even more fun.
They gather at a central place, and the field officer along with some helpers, organize trainings on that day - mostly around planting techniques. The groups also discuss their plans for repaying their loans...which are due in early September. The Repayment part...getting that money back...is my job - and one that has been taking a lot of my time and brain lately!
One of the things that has consumed some of the most time - is the (somewhat) surprise we got after our first round of deliveries. Out of the ~13,000 farmers that had qualified, only about 10,000 showed up to pick up their inputs. We apparently always get a small drop...people change their minds, move away, totally forget...whatever. But it averages around 5%, not 20%.
So -beyond the hassle our logistics team had to deal with in bringing lots of inputs BACK to the warehouse, and all the refunds of that prepayment we now have to do - the bigger question on the table is - why did all of those farmers ‘drop’?
We need to understand that to understand how to take our program forward in Uganda (or not). There have been quite a few lengthy discussions, and we have also designed an intensive follow-up with phone-calls to dropped farmers, and field visit ‘focus group’ discussions. That’s all going on now.
A few leading hypotheses are that our targets were too ambitious, especially after the relatively rough season we had last year with drought and pest attacks, and...that we have some increasing issues with sugarcane competition, rising land prices....But one bigger question is whether we are offering the right products and service to farmers here - the program in Uganda is still relatively new, and so we need to keep working to figure this out.
Whew, we’ll see....
But the rainy season has started, the seeds are in the ground, and now we have 10,000 farmers to work with until September.
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Cold Cold Christmas
We’ve made it through 3 weeks in the frozen United States - good thing all the family and friends and food and crazy snow sports made the temperatures not so bad.
We had a great time catching up with some of you - if we didn’t see you, sorry, we could only do so much socializing, especially when it was too cold to leave the house some days.
We did manage to learn how to cross country ski and get a toddler to walk on ice - both basically to stay warm. And we tried almost? every brewery in the Burlington, VT area.
Cheers to 2018! A few more photos coming next.
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Roller-coasters and Rain-forests
It’s hard to believe we have only been here about 4 months. Almost every day has been in some ways a little rollercoaster ride, and each month has as well. With the transition being so intense, it feels like we have been here so much longer.
It is a good thing that we’ve done an international move before, and I’ve even reached back to my Peace Corps training days to remember that this period of time is supposed to feel like a rollercoaster. That has made it all a bit easier - when things have been particular crazy I try to take a deep breath and remind myself that the beginning is of course going to be hard.
Some days it feels like everything comes at once, and I have said more than once - when it rains it pours. Which seems appropriate for the rainy season we are in now here - it really does pour. The other day, just as an example - one of our toilets broke and was flooding the floor, the power was out, our dog was sick and we had to drive out of town to a decent vet (yes, we adopted a little puppy! photos soon), our landlord wanted to argue about the shade trees we planted in the front yard, we had to remember to get out a huge wad of cash to pay for Damian’s school term, at night Damian decided he wanted to play with our only working downstairs light and walk around in the dark and bonk his face on a wooden bed...oh and we had to still go to work and get stuff done. :) Just a typical day.
But there are so many good things too, little roller coaster highs on almost every day. We can drink fresh watermelon juice for breakfast, a random person will give you the biggest smile and greeting on the street, I’ll figure out something at work and feel pretty proud of it, Damian will do something like run and give you a big hug and say ‘The Ma!’, our nanny will cook us some delicious traditional food, we can walk or bike home from the office over (rocky) roads and look at a beautiful sky, we can have drinks with friends by the Nile river and watch the sunset. The tops of the ride are pretty great really.
Two weekends ago we felt like we needed a little retreat, and decided to check out the forest preserve not far from Jinja. We stayed at a kind-of fancy lodge, and were treated to delicious meals, a pool, sauna...and a fun little rainforest walk. We relaxed and looked at the huge beautiful trees. And listened to all of the birds, there are so many birds. Photos of that here!
Looking forward to another break over Christmas and the New Year in the States with family. Not looking forward to the cold!
*I like hearing from you! If you are reading this as email, just hit reply, it goes to me! Or leave a comment on the blog page, I’ll read it.
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Our Neighborhood
Our neighborhood is a crazy crazy mix of things. It is really hard to describe, and has definitely been hard to get used to, or understand.
I thought I would start by sharing some photos. Here are pictures of the houses and businesses and I’ve captured so far.
About half of the houses in the neighborhood are abandoned ones that have not been reclaimed by the Indian families who were kicked out. Most of them have local Uganda families living in them - or mostly living outside in the yard and using the rundown structure in some way that is hard to understand since we can’t see inside. They do sleep inside I think, I don’t know if they have working water inside? A few of the houses seem to be just empty.
And then the other half are big, relatively nice, houses that are lived in by families with more money. Most have been gated yards, security guards, and really nicely maintained gardens. Theses neighbors are a mix of other expats from Europe or America, or well-off Ugandans. We think (?) that the man who lives in a big fancy place across the path is in the government...and probably spends only sometime in Jinja, but haven’t confirmed that one, only seen a fancy car drive in and out occasionally and one mysterious meeting with lots of fancy cars and extra security showing up.
The other house closer to us is a squatter one (not pictured here), and we do see them, every time we walk out of our gate. ;) Lots of kids, and goats, and chickens, and some kind of engine fixing business going on.
So - diverse for sure. We have at least decided that is like New York City in one way - we can walk out of our front door wearing mostly anything, or doing anything - and we will still someone just blend in.
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First Uganda Camping
A few weeks ago we made it out of Jinja for our first weekend getaway, and our first camping trip in Uganda, and our first camping trip with Damian!
We drove up the Nile about an hour or so, and camped on an island in the River, at a campground called the Hairy Lemon.
Experiment was a success! The new car made it, even over some really bumpy roads towards the end.
The new tent - we were able to put it up, and it’s great, and we didn’t get wet in the rain! And Damian loved the tent and all the zippers.
There were monkeys, so many monkeys. Red-tailed howler monkeys that run around in the trees and jump from tree to tree chasing each other. We spent a lot of time watching the monkeys. Damian kept asking them to ‘come’, but they didn’t quite listen.
This place was easy camping - they even include 3 cooked meals for you, and there was water and composting toilets. We had plenty of space to ourselves, although there was a big group there learning how to whitewater kayak.
We saw some really pretty stars for some time when the rainy season clouds parted.
Was good to get away for a bit - trying to plan our next one.
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Putting Down Roots
A couple of weeks ago we went to a plant nursery in town, and bought all kinds of things.
I thought it would be fun to take pictures of some of this stuff now, and then again maybe a year from now...maybe two years from now?
Greg and I haven’t lived anywhere, ever, that we actually had a yard to plant in. And we also haven’t been anywhere in a really long time that we thought we might stay for more than two years.
So it felt both strange, and also really nice, to be able to plant some things here, put some roots down into the ground. Our yard really needs some shade, so we even planted two shade trees, they should give us some shade in 2-3 years!? Crazy to plan that far ahead, but we figured worst case we give some shade for the next lucky residents.
Of course a week or so later the landlord actually made an appearance for the first time, since there are some broken things to be fixed..and he was somehow less thrilled about all our planting (he prefers only organized British-style hedgerows I suppose). A less exciting reminder that we finally have space, but it’s not actually ours. Anyway, I everything is staying put for now. Always an adventure here.
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Homestay-ing
A couple of weeks ago we had a mini-family adventure. One Acre Fund likes new employees to do a homestay, in one of the communities where we are working.
The idea is to stay with a One Acre Fund field officers - the people who work directly with our farmers throughout the season, at their home. During the day you shadow them in their work, and the rest of the time is for learning about what life is like in the rural areas we are working.
Kind of like a very very mini-Peace Corps experience. They have many staff do this for 3-4 days, but they are flexible. We asked if we could do just 2 days, 1 night, but do it together as a family, because we thought that would be most fun. And for Greg it was optional for him to do it at all, and for me, they knew I had a lot of experience with this stuff already, and that I will be out in the field...every week really. So this was a nice compromise, and they were excited to set it up for us - the first full family homestay done in the Uganda program!
We went to the district of Kamuli, about 1.5 hours northeast-ish from Jinja, and stayed with a field officer named Moses, and his wife, and 6? kids. We spent some of our time going around to visit farmers, or farmers groups....we visited right at the end of the season when farmers’ loans are due, so he was basically in money collection mode. But we were able to chat with some of the farmers about the season as well.
And the rest of the time we spent...mostly chasing Damian around. While he chased chickens and goats and cows and motorcycles and what have you. Or...trying to make sure he was ok when all the other kids wanted to look at him. He mostly had a blast - although we are sure he was confused at some points.
We got to try all the local foods - the family cooked a whole lot of things for us, so that was a nice opportunity - since in town we mostly cook ourselves or go to restaurants that serve either western, Indian, or at least urban versions of traditional Ugandan food. We learned our first few words in Lusoga.....
I can’t say Greg and I got much sleep - they did clear out one of the bedrooms for us and scattered the children that normally sleep there around in other places. But the mattress was...iffy, and there were a lot of noises. Damian slept through it in his little tent next to us..although he was making some of the noises. So one night was enough, but we were glad we went.
It was also unique to have the experience with our small child - we definitely came away with a lot of thoughts about differences in child raising between our two cultures. I’ve seen it 100 times before, but when you are with your own kid, you notice more all the other children who are unsupervised. That’s a topic for another blog perhaps.
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