Buloba

The youth I’ve been working with work on a farm called Buloba every Monday and Saturday. The farm grows crops which are used to feed the children staying at the Dwelling Places home. I’ve joined them a few times to have a shot at farming the African way...

The night before my first visit I was praying for rain, I knew I was going to be digging, and I was dreading the thought of digging the dry red dirt. I was so pleased when I woke up through the night to the sound of rain battering on the corrugated iron roof of the cottage! I got up, had my breakfast, thought I better have an extra weetabix this morning as I was planning on working very hard. It was still a little drizzly so I put my raincoat on and headed to Henrietta’s where I was meeting the youth at 7.30 to be collected.
We arrived at the farm just after 8 o’clock, we only had a short while to take it all in. The farm is placed on a fairly steep hill, at the bottom of the hill there’s a stream, matoke and banana trees all the way up to the top where there is a building with a few doors. I was told this was the kitchen, chicken pen, and area for the staff to live. There was also an area for the pigs and a little in the distance is a home which has been built for older boys taken in by Dwelling Places in the future. These buildings still have a little work to be done on them, but there is a team from Northern Ireland out at the moment working on that.

After being shown around I started digging, by now the rain had stopped but it was still very cloudy, I was extremely happy about these clouds as the day went on as they kept the heat from the sun away. We dug for just over an hour before stopping to collect water from the stream in jerry cans and a cup of Ugandan porridge...

which is quite different from Scots Porridge! It’s made from corn flour, water and some sugar. Was great to keep our energy up for the rest of the morning of digging. We stopped about 11.30 and rested while having a munch on some jack fruit, if anyone’s ever tried jack fruit straight from the tree they’ll know about the horrible sticky residue it leaves on your hands, and for those of you who know me will know what a stress it is for me to have anything on my hands! But the jack fruit is pretty tasty, and since it’s only available for a short time I dug in.
Simon Peter, the farm manager, took me to show me some cassava (a root vegetable), he dug the small tree up and peeled some cassava, which is usually fried for breakfast, and handed it to me to eat. I was a little concerned as when it’s fried it tastes a little like potatoes, so raw I didn’t know what to expect, but it was actually very tasty, and reminded me a little of coconut.

We dug up the rest and Simon Peter showed us how to plant cassava, basically you dig a hole, take two branches about a foot long, place them parallel about half a foot apart and cover with soil. I found that very fascinating!
We took the rest of the cassava back to the kitchen and the ladies prepared it for lunch, along with pumkin, beans and rice. Just as we were finishing off a storm began so we hurried into the bus and headed back home.
I got back just in time for friendship club, so after an hour with the children I went home for a wash and a nap! I couldn’t believe it when I woke up three hours later! Must’ve needed it!
Didn’t put me off though as the following Monday I was up sharp to join the young folks at the farm again, this time the sun was shining. So I was pleased to have been given the new job of pruning the matoke trees. It was another great day and I wasn’t nearly as tired as I had been on Saturday.

I was working with one of the young people, Christine, who showed me what each part of the tree is used for, how the leaves are used in the cooking, and also dried out and used in crafts, in actual fact it’s the matoke leaves that are used in making baskets like the one I made a few weeks ago. I love that nothing is wasted here!

Jenn came along for a shot of digging the following Saturday, she was unfortunate to have come on another sunny day. She was also unfortunate in that they kept her digging for hours and didn’t stop for porridge until it was time to go home. But she survived! This time I was pruning again, and after that I was helping (or watching while the boys) take the matoke trees down, I did help to carry the matoke up the hill, which proved to be a much more difficult task than it looks. I couldn’t believe the weight in the branches, but with a little help I had it on my head and was looking very African indeed!


Laura <><