More from UGANDA

In the land of Bananas

Beautiful till Dawn

With my Colega driving carefully and sporadically pointing at some old building, explaining what it was some decades back, we drove down a sandy road, silently while big sunflower heads waving at us. One would feel the urge of waving back, but Charles was busy explaining every spot so I had to pay half attention while breathing the serene African breeze that I missed so much. El Regreso, how sweet to back home. We stopped at a primary school and had our meeting under a traditional shelter made of makuti palm leaves.
The chat that was meant to be for solely for data collection turned out to be a homecoming meeting for me. I could feel their hopes as they answer my questions, their togetherness and the sense of belonging. "He is the store man, he takes care of the harvest", Ekuto would say of his younger brother who is not as much eloquent as he is but spots a face of hardworking and sincere man. As we chatted, they quickly drift into village conversation and share news and laugh out loudly. I enjoyed every bit of it.
Our journey back was too short as we passed though small lively villages, men and women in groups sipping the local brew from the same pot using long pipes made of reeds and enjoying the local Ugandan music. Through, Katine, Kamswahili and the "Beautiful till Dawn" Village. It deserves the name, with it's outstanding scenery of palm trees with yellow cocos and the people sending off the sun with the loud Ugandan music and sipping the local brew. The orange sun, that seems to be setting down in the East to me barely can barely illuminate the small villages now. The Beautiful till Dawn Village was ushering darkness now as we drove past it. Sleep well Mama Africa. Your beautiful till dawn!

Doña Soledad's house. She was magnificient. Gracias Doña Sole! Gracias Fernando....she used to call us my babies!! woah! her perpetual phrase...que cosas mas divina, preciosa

Left-Right: Alba (From Barcelona,Spain) n Gina (Costa Rica) friends in La Cruz.

La Feria de Agricultor, La Cruz. Love the spirit.

Work of Pottery by Doña Carmen from La Virgen. This clay pan is used to make tortillas.

THE BLUE SKIES OF LA CRUZ.

The Magnificient Tree.

Downtown La Cruz. Never to see again?

En La Cruz

Too bumpy the road that lead through some shrubs and patches of forest to La Cruz. There were a few houses, a deafening mill for rice and corn. A few busy women chatting on probably the days events, two domesticated Guinea fowls Numida meleagris strolling and picking the grains and few boisterous lads running up the steep. With the sun frying from above we stepped out to joyfully greet the group of women. "Spanish? am fluent now", I boasted to my friends.
Here the women association of La Cruz manage the mill. They also produce various product made of corn and rice; Tamales, Roscillas, Arroz con leche...
We visited a few other places; palmares, belice....similar to La Virgin.
I love the place.

Martin Neimoller poem 1892-1984

They came for the Communists, and I

didn't object - For I wasn't

a Communist;

They came for the Socialists, and I

didn't object - For I wasn't a Socialist;

They came for the labor leaders, and I

didn't object - For I wasn't a labor leader;

They came for the Jews, and I didn't

object - For I wasn't a Jew;

Then they came for me -

And there was no one left to object.

Martin Niemoller, German Protestant Pastor,

1892-1984

If Kibaki is the problem, what is the solution?

Read this great piece by Mutahi Ngunyi. It is an excerpt from the Sunday Nation.

Biomonitoring of Water Quality in the rivers

This is a techique that uses insects and other acuatic organisms as bioindicators to qualify the effects of the contaminations of the rivers. It is a quick, simple and accurate method that can be of use to communties with no sophisticated lab equipments to test water quality.
It involves collecting samples of the bioindicators from the rivers using nets, identifying the bioindicators and storing, interpreting the data obtained using premade tables with ranges of water quality.

Self Sufficiency; a road we must walk.

Douglas Malloch in his poem puts..." the tree that never had to fight for sun and air and light, but stood in the open plain and always got its share of rain, never became a forest King, but lived and died a common thing. The man who never had to toil, never became a manly man...he lived and died as he began.” This is 2009 packed and sealed. Hard work! No household, institution, government which is not called to make bold moves and near utopic decisions. Sacrifices! EARTH University is not an exception!

While we have toyed with the idea of self sufficiency for decades, as an institution we have always mark timed and never made significant moved towards this end. The time is now and this is the year to do those bold moves. There are a plethora of reasons that make this endevour have legs.
First, The university's mission is to train agents of change. Better put, propagate change! Make economically less privilleged regions to walk down the road of self sufficiency. As a agent of change itself, the university should be first the change in order to impart change to the future change beares. In this way should walk that road toward self sufficiency first. As the Chinese adage puts..." You do not cross a river but sitting on its banks".

Second, there is an economic reason to do that. This year, 2009, more that ever, the university has felt the impact of the global economic crisis. Without much ado, the university's financial status is in jeopardy as the crisis deepens. An alternative source of income is urgently needed.

Lastly, there are other institutions and farms whose example can be followed. They have seen the importance of self sufficiency just as we have seen but have walked the road before us. We have a leaf to borrow from them.

There exist a number of ways to start this long sacred walk. We have discussed this in other forums. So many bright ideas have come up. But my hope is as benevolent as yours, but one thing am sure of, that am convinced to participate in this.This is the sacrifice all of us need to do. For we as D. Malloch would put..." build the road of Masonry with other men in mind;We do not build for you and me, We build for all mankind. We build a road! - remember, men, build not for now, but build for then, and other men who walk the way shall find the road we built today... and shall bless the builder for faithfulness."

Disarming the harmless

It is sad to hear what the govenment of Kenya is doing to the samburus in Archer Post. There is famine and the govenment is taking all what the people have as a fortune. In history, shifts from one way of life to another has never taken a a day, not even a couple of decades. It takes centuries, contrary to this brings "cultural mutation" whose symptoms are among other the extinction of a whole community or society. I hope the Kenyan government is not planning this intentionally. It would be a crime against humanity.
Another case to Hague.

Hague's Hectic?

It is sad that justice in Kenya is a luxury. It is not even delayed, it is denied plainly. I cannot imagine that those who faned the ethnic clashes can still sit on high authority to govern without even blinking an eye. Impunity in Kenya is a word specifically used to refer to an "indispensable right of the rich and the powerful" oh wait...it is birth-right! For the sons and daughters of soil, we cannot stomach that nor will we ever waste a minute to challege that. Kenya is ours and we must stand up to take back our country. We are the power!