African Adventure - Day 3 - December 28

We were up early to head to One Acre Farm to visit with Doctor Emma and her and to see her eco-friendly and sustainable Farm.  We loaded up, and were off.  Thankfully there was time for napping!

Along the way, a motorcycle crashed into one of our vehicles.  Luckily no one was hurt, but it was a bit unsettling for sure!

Great to see Dr. Emma again.  We visited her in 2020, and in 2021, she joined the class via Zoom.  She was busy that day so multi-tasked and inseminated pigs in the barn while chatting with us.  No joke.

It is amazing how she uses every animal by-product to produce other sources of food for other animals on the farm. Pigs, cows, chickens, tilapia, flies, maggots, you name it.  We are most interested in her tilapia farm and her piggery.

She also runs a primary school.  Kids learn about farming and how to sell products and open bank accounts.

Our ND friend Martin Lukindu joined us for the tour.  Martin helped out with the 2020 class as he wrapped up his PhD in mosquito-borne illnesses.  Now he is back in Uganda with his wife and two girls.  So great to see him!  Below is Martin, Victoria and me.

After the tour Victoria served us bananas from the farm.  Some of the best I've ever had!  Caden loved them so much he ate two!

This is the snail farm in the primary school.  The snails are as big as my hand!  They sell the slime for cosmetics.

Picking maggots for the chicken feed.

The piggery progression, from A to D = baby piglets!

Tilapia Farm

From here we travelled to Bethany Land Institute to see how my colleague from ND, Father Emmanuel, teaches agroforestry and sustainability. Here are some of the great views from the window along the way...

From here we traveled on to Bethany Land Institute to see how my colleague Father Emmanuel comer teaches agroforestry and sustainability. A few highlights from his program are the small 10 by 10m plots of land that students can use to grow and apply what they are learning to sell for profit.  They also had goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and pigs.

After the tour, they asked Victoria and I to each plant a tree.

After our visits we drove to Kalbega Diner, my usual stop for lunch, for fish and Niles beer :)

We travelled on to Gulu.  Right around where we crossed the Nile we were stopped, as you often are, by the police.  The COVID curfew is 7:30 PM and it was 8:30 PM.  Our driver Denis had us underway in no time with a quick slight of his hand.  We arrived at the Bomah Hotel around 9:30 PM.  The girls and I shared a triple and Corey and Caden a double.  We played a little Spot-It and went to bed.  Poor Gia could not sleep, and was kind enough to keep me informed HOURLY!