Some of you may know that we have been working in a small (almost non-existent) village called Mbuesa.  Mbuesa is Wycliffe’s (our school administrator) home village where his family still resides and his ancestors are buried on family land.  Floods and then severe drought have hit this region of Uganda very hard in recent years.  It has left many poor villages in great despair.  Previously, with the help of some of you, we were able to deliver a truckload of blankets, mattresses, nets, clothes, shoes and food to help alleviate some of their immediate needs.  Through the love of others, we were able to give hybrid seed to some of the poorest farmers to give them a bumper crop this year to help make up for the failure of their crops over the past few years.  We have also started a small store in town to sell farm supplies and much needed cattle and goat medicines to prevent death and disease in the livestock.   Previously these basic farm supplies were not available without traveling for miles to get them.
 
On this trip, I decided to take the four-hour car ride up to Mbuesa, which is 20 miles from the border of Kenya to see first hand if our efforts were having any impact.  Now, if you have ever driven in Africa, you will know that every road trip is an adventure.  If you don’t get a flat, run out of gas, get lost, get shaken down by police get stuck in a pothole, or hit one of many roadside obstacles such as:   a) a broken down cattle truck, b) a flipped over petrol truck surrounded by pedestrians siphoning the gas into plastic water bottles, or our personal favourite;  c) a man jumping out into traffic wielding a banana as a gun (yes, it happened to us), it was a fantastic trip.  Needless to say I had a fantastic trip although I did have to use a train bridge with my car to cross a swamp, which was a little hair-raising (see video).

When I first pulled into the town centre of Wycliffe’s village it reminded me of a ghost town in the old Wild West.  Many shops were closed down and boarded up, dust was blowing down the street, and the local saloon was open for business.  In Uganda, the word saloon is used instead of salon, so the saloons there are where you get hair extensions and your nails painted.   However, the bar was open as well.  As I looked around the town centre I only saw about 10 people milling about in the middle of the afternoon.  On this trip I was able to bring a large suitcase full of croc shoes (thanks to Feed the Children Canada) to Mbuesa.   When I opened the suitcase, in a matter of 10 seconds 500 shoeless Ugandans surrounded me.  Yes, from 10 people to 500 people in 10 seconds flat.  I only had 200 pairs of shoes and they were only in infant sizes, which quickly cut my clientele in half until they ran home to get their babies, and returned.  Wycliffe and I managed to handle the mob scene by retreating into our new farm supply store and giving out the shoes over the counter not just for organization by for our own safety.   There were a couple hundred children that did not get shoes but I passed out bubble gum to them and promised to return with more shoes next time.  (see video) In Africa never go anywhere without at least two bags of bubble gum…..it might just save the day.

We then took a short drive out of the city centre to see some of the crops that were planted with the hybrid seed we had purchased and given to the poor farmers.  It truly was shocking.  I was taken to a place where I saw a field planted with standard corn seed two weeks before one of our farmers planted his hybrid seed.  There was a pathway between the two fields.  On the right I could see withered, scorched crops with no ears of corn visible, and to the left I saw dark green, corn stocks, about 6 feet high with ears well under development.   My eyes couldn’t help looking back over to the withered crops, that were scorched in the sun and I felt so sad for that farmer.  Under our current program we have given farmers 5 kilos of hybrid and he will return to us 10 kilos of hybrid seed from his crop that we can distribute to more poor farmers.  We are told that this can make a difference for up to 3 generations of seed until we have to influx some new hybrid seed.  With this program, we hope to help many more farmers so they can all benefit from healthy and abundant crops. 

I had a very pleasant day in Mbuesa, laughing and sharing with Wycliffe, meeting his mom and neighbours and seeing where his dad was buried.  Some of the recipients of the mattresses and blankets (thanks Dean and Lisa) were so thankful and couldn’t believe that anyone cared about them.  They commented that they always see the big organizations drive through their town with their nice cars but never stopping to help.  One of their greatest needs is a town well.  I was taken to the area where both the people and the cattle get their water and it is nothing more than a black cesspool.  This will be one of our next big projects for our trip in September.  If you would like to help with the well, please see the “Help the Kids” page.   Check out the video to see my adventures and pay attention at the end of the video when I play a joke on Wycliffe and make him buy street food for me.