December 12th: Community Walk

When we returned to camp we had the pleasure of going on a community walk through the valley. We visited a progressive women's basket shop, where money goes to the local school and health care for the village. Then we visited the traditional healer, who was dressed in goat skins and showed us his herbs. He was very entertaining and showed us an herb that the villagers use that is like Viagra and a similar herb for women that is so powerful that if a woman's husband is out of town when she takes the herb she is sure to sleep with another man! Next we went to the banana distillery, where they make banana juice, wine, and gin. It's a fairly involved process with ripening the fruit, stomping on it, and allowing it ferment. Finally, we visited the pygmies, who only in the past 20 years or so left the forest and caves where they used to live to live with the neighboring community. They are extremely private people who don't like others to see where they live. So they were waiting for us along a path where they sang some songs for us and danced. I actually did a little dance with them, but Tom, always feeling like big bird on the dance floor bowed out, but managed to record the event on video. We then shopped a little with them. We felt like royalty as it was just our guide, tour leader and Tom and I.

As a result of the community walk and spending time with Carol and Steve we've learned a lot about the culture here. For example, the valleys in southwest Uganda are covered with banana trees and tea bushes. We passed some tea fields on our walk and came across a woman picking the tea. It is very tedious work, all hand picked and only young leaves with a blossom in the middle are suitable for picking. A day's work for tea pickers is 50 shillings or $.03! Hard work in the hot Ugandan sun. Later we learned from out tour guide that over half of the population here live under the poverty rate, which is $2 a month. It's very humbling to learn this and realize what privilege we have...