Blog 1: First week in Uganda!
Door: Marije Wilting
11 Februari 2018 | Oeganda, Kampala
The first days in Uganda:
Saturday Hilleke and I flew to Uganda to start our adventurous internship! The ride to Schiphol with Pieter was already an experience since in the last ten minutes of the ride I could not stop crying, while I was laughing in the same time. Crying, because I had to leave Pieter for 4 months. Laughing, because it felt quite weird, since in the same time I was looking forward to the adventure.
Sunday we arrived in Entebbe, Uganda. From there we drove to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. For two days we were enjoying the city, our hotel (with swimming pool!) and we met our very nice and inspiring Agriterra colleagues. Monday we went to have a beer with two Agriterra colleagues (from Gouda and Veghel) and we had a lot of fun! This certainly was a good start of the week!
Tuesday we were reaching to Mbarara, the place where we will live for the coming 4 months, about 4,5 hour drive from Kampala. On our way we passed the equator, saw some nice African nature and enjoyed the hilly road. We met our colleagues and settled down a bit in our apartment. We have a nice apartment with beds, couches, a kitchen, a refrigerator, even warm water if we wait for 30 minutes! So this is a lot different from my stay in India, where I had no furniture at all.
My work environment:
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we were introduced in the SNV office, the TIDE-project and the Agriterra colleagues. Hilleke and I are doing our internship for Agriterra and Agriterra is a close partner with SNV. Agriterra is a Dutch organisation which supports cooperatives in a.o. East-Africa to improve the agriculture and help the farmers. SNV is an NGO that also has a very interesting approach. SNV supports farmers by training and also by subsidising the agricultural private sector. In this way the agricultural sector can develop, because the products and services become cheaper because they are subsidised by SNV. SNV is managing the TIDE-project. The goal of TIDE is to improve the dairy sector in South-West Uganda. Thursday we had a whole-day-meeting of the TIDE program, including the partners, and here it was showed that the program is already successful! They are halfway and milk production and investments are increasing at fast pace and milk export has started! I am working for the TIDE-project, since there is a lot of potential for dairy cooperatives to improve the dairy sector. It is better to reach 1000 farmers trough 2 cooperatives than reaching all dairy farmers individually. In my research I will focus on improving the quality of the milk, since now farmers add e.g. water to it to increase volume. Also the components of the milk really differ per farmer and if Uganda wants to increase their export, they should increase their quality.
My first week in Mbarara:
I have really enjoyed this week. It is good to be back in Africa and experience the life here. Everybody is very open and also happy. People here can always cheer you up and really care about each other. Also I noticed that here in the office they can work really hard, doing a lot of work in the field, but in the same time also make time for a chat. The people are very welcoming and helpful, so I already feel quite at home. The fruits here are great and VERY cheap! (30 cts for a pine apple, 15 cts for a huge avocado!) Every day we eat mango’s, pineapple, banana’s, etc and they are way more tastier here than when you buy them in NL! The food is nice, sometimes weird, but in general I really like it! Though I was quite surprised when I saw 4 eyeballs laying on the kitchenfloor, while the goat pieces were on sticks on the bbq.
Also, I really enjoy the team-spirit. At the bbq evening at work we all drank some wine and beers and some people gave a speech that was really inspiring and motivating to keep on supporting farmers. These people from Mbarara are great public speakers! Everybody was laughing, joking, being happy, and making fun of each other.
Things at SNV are well organised, though flexible in the same time, this I really enjoy. For example, when we had a whole day meeting, people are properly timed and warned if they have less than 2 minutes to finish their speech. That is quite strict, but in the same time people make jokes and also move constantly to another place, because of the hot sun. (The building is too small to house everyone in one room, so the meeting was in a tent outside).
Also, it was nice to see that people really take care of each other since there is no health insurance. One colleague of us is going for surgery this weekend and we all gave him money to be able to pay for it.
This week we met 8 Dutch People. 3 in Kampala and 5 in Mbarara. It is great to see that more Dutch people really see opportunities in this country. And I think indeed that there are a lot of opportunities for the agricultural sector. Now we are in the end of the dry season and it is still green in many places! This is really not like India, were there was almost nothing left anymore. If farmers learn more about feed, manure/fertilizers/hygienic production/paddocking/management/quality issues, there is a lot to gain!
A free day in Mbarara :
Saturday Hilleke and I had our first free day! We got up early, went for jogging, made yoghurt with a lot of fruits, washed our clothes (by hand), went to the city, the market, a restaurant, bought clothes from a very nice woman whit whom we had a lot of fun! After that, back to the supermarket to buy water, electricity, gas, all these things you don’t have to buy normally. We have a kind of “ personal taxi” and we called him to pick us up from there. In the evening we went out, what an experience! I really like the vibe in the pubs/clubs. In the first pub there was a very talented band that we really enjoyed. In the second club they made good ( and strong) cocktails. We watched video clips and danced a bit. A funny night out.
Saturday Hilleke and I flew to Uganda to start our adventurous internship! The ride to Schiphol with Pieter was already an experience since in the last ten minutes of the ride I could not stop crying, while I was laughing in the same time. Crying, because I had to leave Pieter for 4 months. Laughing, because it felt quite weird, since in the same time I was looking forward to the adventure.
Sunday we arrived in Entebbe, Uganda. From there we drove to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. For two days we were enjoying the city, our hotel (with swimming pool!) and we met our very nice and inspiring Agriterra colleagues. Monday we went to have a beer with two Agriterra colleagues (from Gouda and Veghel) and we had a lot of fun! This certainly was a good start of the week!
Tuesday we were reaching to Mbarara, the place where we will live for the coming 4 months, about 4,5 hour drive from Kampala. On our way we passed the equator, saw some nice African nature and enjoyed the hilly road. We met our colleagues and settled down a bit in our apartment. We have a nice apartment with beds, couches, a kitchen, a refrigerator, even warm water if we wait for 30 minutes! So this is a lot different from my stay in India, where I had no furniture at all.
My work environment:
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we were introduced in the SNV office, the TIDE-project and the Agriterra colleagues. Hilleke and I are doing our internship for Agriterra and Agriterra is a close partner with SNV. Agriterra is a Dutch organisation which supports cooperatives in a.o. East-Africa to improve the agriculture and help the farmers. SNV is an NGO that also has a very interesting approach. SNV supports farmers by training and also by subsidising the agricultural private sector. In this way the agricultural sector can develop, because the products and services become cheaper because they are subsidised by SNV. SNV is managing the TIDE-project. The goal of TIDE is to improve the dairy sector in South-West Uganda. Thursday we had a whole-day-meeting of the TIDE program, including the partners, and here it was showed that the program is already successful! They are halfway and milk production and investments are increasing at fast pace and milk export has started! I am working for the TIDE-project, since there is a lot of potential for dairy cooperatives to improve the dairy sector. It is better to reach 1000 farmers trough 2 cooperatives than reaching all dairy farmers individually. In my research I will focus on improving the quality of the milk, since now farmers add e.g. water to it to increase volume. Also the components of the milk really differ per farmer and if Uganda wants to increase their export, they should increase their quality.
My first week in Mbarara:
I have really enjoyed this week. It is good to be back in Africa and experience the life here. Everybody is very open and also happy. People here can always cheer you up and really care about each other. Also I noticed that here in the office they can work really hard, doing a lot of work in the field, but in the same time also make time for a chat. The people are very welcoming and helpful, so I already feel quite at home. The fruits here are great and VERY cheap! (30 cts for a pine apple, 15 cts for a huge avocado!) Every day we eat mango’s, pineapple, banana’s, etc and they are way more tastier here than when you buy them in NL! The food is nice, sometimes weird, but in general I really like it! Though I was quite surprised when I saw 4 eyeballs laying on the kitchenfloor, while the goat pieces were on sticks on the bbq.
Also, I really enjoy the team-spirit. At the bbq evening at work we all drank some wine and beers and some people gave a speech that was really inspiring and motivating to keep on supporting farmers. These people from Mbarara are great public speakers! Everybody was laughing, joking, being happy, and making fun of each other.
Things at SNV are well organised, though flexible in the same time, this I really enjoy. For example, when we had a whole day meeting, people are properly timed and warned if they have less than 2 minutes to finish their speech. That is quite strict, but in the same time people make jokes and also move constantly to another place, because of the hot sun. (The building is too small to house everyone in one room, so the meeting was in a tent outside).
Also, it was nice to see that people really take care of each other since there is no health insurance. One colleague of us is going for surgery this weekend and we all gave him money to be able to pay for it.
This week we met 8 Dutch People. 3 in Kampala and 5 in Mbarara. It is great to see that more Dutch people really see opportunities in this country. And I think indeed that there are a lot of opportunities for the agricultural sector. Now we are in the end of the dry season and it is still green in many places! This is really not like India, were there was almost nothing left anymore. If farmers learn more about feed, manure/fertilizers/hygienic production/paddocking/management/quality issues, there is a lot to gain!
A free day in Mbarara :
Saturday Hilleke and I had our first free day! We got up early, went for jogging, made yoghurt with a lot of fruits, washed our clothes (by hand), went to the city, the market, a restaurant, bought clothes from a very nice woman whit whom we had a lot of fun! After that, back to the supermarket to buy water, electricity, gas, all these things you don’t have to buy normally. We have a kind of “ personal taxi” and we called him to pick us up from there. In the evening we went out, what an experience! I really like the vibe in the pubs/clubs. In the first pub there was a very talented band that we really enjoyed. In the second club they made good ( and strong) cocktails. We watched video clips and danced a bit. A funny night out.
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
