We're All Going on a Bee Hunt!

Glen and I have spent the past week in the West Nile region of Uganda. This is a remote area in the North West cut off from the rest of the country by the Nile as there is only the one bridge in the south of the area at Pacwach. It is bordered on the north by South Sudan and on the west and south by the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We stayed at an Agriculture College where Glen is doing some pictures for their training manuals and I've been looking at their books and records as the college is one of our partner organisations.

The last time I visited the college was in February, which was towards the end of the dry season, they had no rain between 11th December and 5th March! Very little was growing, the grass was brown and crunched as you walked on it and it was very hot, 40 degrees centigrade in the shade. What a difference 2 months makes! Everything was green, the grass was as tall as me in places where it hadn't been cut, the crops were growing (along with the weeds) and it was much cooler. We even needed a blanket a night!

It was a large team which travelled to the college this time, including the Country Director and Programme Officer. So Tuesday afternoon saw a group of 7 heading out into the community to meet some of the beneficiaries of the programmes, particularly the bee keeping programmes. It was like being back in college days with two 'little ones' squeezed into the front of the pick up truck along with the driver, three on the back seat and one of the college staff bumping along in the open back. The 'main' road to the college is only a dirt track so as soon as we turned off into the villages we were driving along a footpath through the long grass.

Our first visit was to a women's bee keeping group who had been given bee hives by various funders and provided with training in bee keeping by the college. They only spoke their local language so we spoke to them through an interpreter. They told us about the freedom they felt to be able to look after the hives, harvest the honey and produce their own contribution to the household income. One of them said that the training had 'taken away the fear' that they didn't know what to do.

A typical bee hive

Then we headed off to meet a retired civil servant who was farming and keeping bees on his land to provide an income to supplement his pension. But getting there was quite an adventure! It reminded me of the children's action poem - we're going on a bear hunt!

First we bumped along in the truck through the pot holes -- bump bump
Then we jumped out -- jump jump
Then we went through the long grass - swish swish
Through the muddy puddles --  bloop bloop
Waded across the river -- splash splash
(after doing a quick personal risk assessment of course - fast flowing so unlikely to be bilharzia, shallow enough, just below knee height, keep sandals on to avoid picking up anything or cutting my feet on the river bed, help available to get in and out etc.)
Slithered up the steep bank -- slip slip
Through the wood -- crack crack
And finally arrived at the bee hives -- buzz buzz

Of course a couple of the bees took a liking to me and buzzed happily around my head while we chatted to the farmer. If you keep still and don't flick at them they are less likely to sting you but it is easier said than done when all you can hear is buzzing! I suppose it's a compliment, I must have looked and smelt like a flower, despite the mile long trek in the African sun :) Anyway, I was quite glad to walk away, although they followed me for some way before heading home, much to the amusement of the rest of the group. But I must have done something right as I didn't get stung.

Then back to the college for supper, but not at a run!
crack crack, slip slip, splash splash, bloop bloop, swish swish, clamber clamber (back into the truck) and bump bump bump!

On Wednesday evening we went for a walk around the college grounds. This has become a traditional feature of our visits to the college and it's really interesting to see all the different crops and the changes at different times of the year. In May the mango crop is ready and the trees are heavy with beautiful ripe, juicy mangos. The local mangos are much smaller, stringier and juicier than the large mangos we are used to. The college has some grafted mango plants with the larger mango plant grafted onto the local mango root stock. These are a bit of an experiment and also supply the college kitchens. But on our tour around the college we found a local mango tree surrounded with windfall mangos, which we piled into Glen's hat, kept in the college fridge overnight and brought back to Kampala. We've also got a lovely jar of the college honey.