It's been quite a while since I last posted. I had intended to last year in Turkey and Paris, but life overwhelmed my best intentions. I'll try harder this time on my first visit to Uganda. I'm here to attend a week of meetings with the Country Managers for Harvest Plus. I left on Tuesday from Seattle for the first leg to Amsterdam, and with just 75 minutes to catch a connection to Entebbe, with a short stop in Kigali, Rwanda. I was able to catch three hours of sleep on the Amsterdam leg, and another three to Entebbe. We were met by Ken, a driver for the local IFPRI office in Kampala. Gene was on the flight with me from Amsterdam, as were two Harvest Plus staff, Benjamin and Olyn, both out of Washington, D.C.
Ken drove the four of us to our hotel in Kampala, about an hour's drive away. As we arrived at about 10:30pm in Entebbe, it was dark, and the drive was quite the adventure. No street lights, narrow roads, lots of motor bikes riding along the sides of the road, drivers with brights on seeming like they were all on a direct collision course, and of course, driving on the left side of the road didn't help my visual cues - I was sitting in the seat reserved for the driver (in the U.S. and Europe).
We were supposed to stay at the Metropole, but Ken informed us that they had moved us to the Golf Course Hotel, named so as it sits next to the only golf course in Kampala, and one of only three courses in Uganda. The rooms they were to have ready for us were not available, so they put us in the Presidential Suite for the night. As the elder of the group (in age only) I was assigned the master bedroom. Benjamin took the room next to me, and Gene decided to take the first floor bedroom, the smallest of the three, and unfortunately, the only one that had no working air conditioning. What a martyr.
I set my alarm for 6:45 the next morning (which was actually only 5 hours away as I didn't to bed until after 1:00 am). Breakfast was fine with a large buffet including an omelet station. The room was outdoors by the pool with a view of the golf course. As we had nothing planned for the day, I decided to go the course and try it out. As a guest of the hotel, we have privileges at the Kampala Golf Club. As you can see from the picture, the course is pretty primitive, with fairways of mowed weeds, dry, rocky and, with no irrigation, hard as nails. The greens are well maintained are obviously well watered. I was surprised at how slow they were - must be the type of grass which bears no resemblance to any greens I've played on before.
On the practice range, the assigned caddy dumps the practice balls and takes the empty ball bucket out onto the practice range. He then, one by one, runs after each shot, retrieves the ball, and when finished, brings the filled bucket back to the practice tees. Interesting approach, although I don't think it will catch on in the U.S.
Finished the day with dinner at the hotel's grill restaurant, Silver City Spur. Had grilled chicken breast and a baked potato, both quite edible. The local Ugandan beer, Nile Special Lager, was also fine. Gene and I walked over to the attached shopping center (and full casino). After walking through the large super market in the mall, we made our way back to the hotel, some finish comments on the blog, and bed. Tomorrow begins the first of two meeting sessions. Looking forward to a (hopefully) good nights sleep.
Wednesday was our Field Trip to see firsthand how the bio-fortified Orange Sweet Potato developed by Harvest Plus is integrated into the farming community and ultimately finds it way to the dinner plate. It was quite the trip with nearly everyone at the meeting participating. We crammed ourselves onto a tour bus, which bears little resemblance to any most of us have come in contact with. After every seat is taken, the arm rest on the right side of each row folds down to create another seat, eliminating the isle. You can imagine how packed we were. The first stop was over an hours drive away on roads, the best of which, would hardly qualify as a highway, and the worst of which were bone jarring dirt roads with massive potholes that could consume a vehicle.
Our first stop was the BioCrops Laboratory and Katente Farmers group in Namalere. The Director, Dr. Talengera, provided a tour of the facilities. Because the area were to visit was small, our group was split into two halves, I being in the first group. We began the tour by removing our shoes to enter the main building, with the only thing we were allowed entry to being the central hall with a small table and some specimen jars containing cultures of OSP (the orange sweet potato that Harvest Plus is working on to improve vitamin A consumption), cassava (another crop HP is working on) and coffee (having nothing to do with HP). We all looked interested in what he had to tell us, but I personally was able to understand about 10% of what he was saying, mainly having to do with the heavy African manner of speaking English. Others in our small group had similar experiences.
We visited the greenhouses where cultured plantings are grown for distribution to the farmers in the area have been trained in proper multiplication techniques. Other than the unique manner in which the enclosures are built with dark fabric walls and roof, it pretty much looked like any other greenhouse. The plants are isolated there to prevent infection carried by a certain type of fly. I also have a picture of one of the more upscale toilets in the area. Note the roll of toilet paper hanging from the entry. I don't know why its hung so high - none of the women in our group would have been able to reach it. Fortunately, none had to use the facility. There is almost no running water in rural communities, and certainly no modern toilets. A few have closed pit toilets like the one shown here. Most have open latrine toilets that ash is spread on regularly to keep smell and insect populations down.
We then headed off to visit a nursery and see a demonstration of clean material handling and field multiplication. I won't bore you with all that went on, but I've included pictures of the visit, both there and at a root production garden and a trader who was there to buy roots for planting. We were given a special lunch and were entertained by local women with songs created to spread the benefits of the Orange Sweet Potato. It was quite the event. I cherish the picture I have holding the lovely children. they are all so inquisitive and friendly. A stand at the farm sold muffins prepared with flour made from the OSP, and we bought pretty much everything she had to sell. We gave all children in the picture with me large muffins I wish I could have done more, but there really was nothing to be done. What HP is doing is making a real difference in their lives, and the whole community is incredibly gracious. The distances between stops and the return ride home took hours of bus travel. We didn't arrive back to our hotel until nearly 7:00 pm. I was covered head to foot in a dusting of red dirt from the trip and sent every stitch of clothing I was wearing to the laundry. 
