AIDSPIRIT- Travel Team

aidspiritwebsite
May 9
3 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

Day 4-

Good morning from Kayunga, Uganda!!!

It’s 8:34 am here, 9 hours ahead of Montana & Idaho, where many of us are from. We’re sitting waiting over an hour for breakfast. No one here is in a hurry, and miscommunication tends to happen often. So patience is a must, just like any other travel experience.

Yesterday, we had a private tour and presentation at MST Junior School, from a gentleman named Washington, whose wife is Dr. Emma featured on the Tender Mercies website. MST is a boarding primary school and permaculture farm, where children are taught farming, traditional school studies, and money management from day 1! They must be responsible for taking care of their own tree or crop, and they get to sell the produce at market. Then the school takes each child to the bank, where EVERYONE gets a bank account, and learns how to be successful with their finances. Super impressive!!!!

Washington’s presentation started with some basics, and reminded us that all life is important. How even the slimy entrails of a snail had magical ingredients for skin revitalization and anti aging. They collect it on the farm to make a topical cream. Us ladies naturally gravitated towards it, applying under our eyes, and rubbing it on our skin.

Next, we toured the “permaculture farm,” and learned what that word actually means. To be honest, I didn’t have a true understanding, other then it was self sustaining. It’s basically a cyclical process, or cycle of life, where each event supports the other event, and is just as important. Let me simplify…. Let’s start with the pig dung. Our farmers take the poo and add maggots. Thats right, the squirmy worm (fly larva) that magically appears in dead things. I’ve always been disgusted by these worms in the past. Maybe because they belong with rotting carcasses that usually have a pungent death smell, or maybe because they wiggle unnaturally amongst rotting flesh, or garbage. These squirmy friends eat the dung and convert to hummus. Don’t get excited, it’s not the Mediterranean kind, not intended for human consumption. Then the remaining product is put into worm beds, where the worms convert it to fertile soil, ready for planting. After, the liquid excretion from the worms is mixed 10 to 1 with water to make a VERY powerful concentrated fertilizer which is then fed to the crops. Everything has a purpose and a job, and is timed precisely. The process is truly mind blowing. It saves the farmer 60% on animal feed, which tends to be the most expensive part of keeping animals.

Today we are off to Tender Mercies to meet the kiddos and unpack the 27 totes. Plenty of things to report later. Stay tuned!!!

Wanna own a farm in Africa? DONATE NOW🥰

https://www.aidspirit.org/permaculturefarm