Takera Community Resource Center

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

 Running

Because Leila had not been feeling well, she had not been coming running with us, so it has just been Heather and I. This week, we were all feeling sick on Monday so none of us went. Instead we made it up on Tuesday and Thursday. Even twice a week is great, though. Heather and I are really excited because we are really noticing the improvement every run. I really hope that when I return home I can find a way to keep it up, because it feels great, even if it makes me really hungry...

Grocery Shopping in Masaka in the Morning

Before breakfast we decided to take a quick (ha!) trip into Masaka to get candy-esque groceries. This included chocolate milk, juice, chips, and chocolate. For a while our cravings for North American food had been growing. Heather got a cupcake at the bakery. Surprisingly, baked goods are quite difficult to find due to the lack of electricity. This means that most people don’t have ovens as we know them, even if they do have energy saving wood stoves. Also, none of the stores sell baking powder or soda, probably because of the lack of demand. Because of all this, Heather’s cupcake was good but unleavened, probably made with maize meal, and dense. Anyways, we ended up getting back rather late.

Takera and Dan’s Tree Plantation

On Thursday we went to Takera Community Resource Center. It was far, further than I expected it to be. It took us perhaps almost an hour before we arrived. It was lovely though, when we arrived. It started as just a clinic about 6 years ago but now it’s a clinic, a school, and they are also growing some pineapple and some trees. Takera doesn’t have very good soil, but pineapples will grow anywhere.

Before this day I had no idea that this was how pineapples grew. I thought they, like, grew on trees or something like all of the other self-respecting fruit. 

Speaking of which, we have pineapples most days for lunch and/or dinner, and I have quite frankly grown addicted. They are so much sweeter and available than they are at home, and so juicy. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

The building on the left is the clinic, the building on the right is the volunteers’ home. Even further to the right is the school, but it is out of the picture. A volunteer named Jessica, who is actually from Tsawassen, has been working at the school for about 2 years. She’s even getting married to a Ugandan Safari guide. She was hilarious, and surprisingly, completely fluent in Luganda. I was so jealous of her language skills. They would be so useful.

School was still out, although it would be starting in a week, so she showed us around to the classrooms and the clinic. They also have a small fund recuperation scheme where they charge peoples’ cell phones. Because they offer birth control and de-worming for free at the clinic, some of the women would slip in while they were charging their cell phones and quickly ask for a birth control treatment or medication or whatever. Apparently birth control is incredibly cheap here in Uganda.

In the classrooms all of the teachers were busy ‘scheming’ as they call it. That is, they were busy planning all of the lesson plans for the coming school year. The classrooms were cute, and they had some interesting posters on the wall.

And some interesting signs outside.

There were a bunch of pigs, too, and they were adorable. Leila grew up on a farm and pigs are her favorite farm animals (in general and also to eat) so she was delighted. She would have held one of the babies, but her mama was slightly protective. 

Jessica’s comment to our enthusiasm was, “White people love pigs.” 

Well, it seems as though this is true. Especially because for Ugandans pigs are not pets, just like no animals are pets, they are only tools or resources or another part of the house. They are not something to be given affection.

After Takera, we left and went to see Dan’s Tree Plantation. He started it with a North American man several years ago. The plan is to grow pine trees, which have very good, strong wood, and which should be able to sell for a lot of money, and then in 15 years, to sell them. In the meantime they were able to provide some students with scholarships for helping to plant the trees, which is also pretty awesome. Dan also likes to encourage people to plant trees around the perimeter of their property. Fast growing trees are  very useful for firewood, while trees like pine can make money or be used for things like furniture and the like. 

Here is Dan in the plantation, as per request by Pat.