DAY 15: June 1- Mvule Project

Whoa! It’s JUNE! That is crazy! Time flies when you are having fun! So today was my group’s turn for our Service Learning project while the other half of the group went to Kampala. We were going to go an hour and half away to a village in order to learn about the Mvule Project. In case you never read my blog from a week ago, the Mvule is a type of really strong tree. The Mvule Project deals with giving villages Mvule seedlings to plant. Also the money they raise they use to come together as a village (Muslim and Christians) to think of a project to install for the benefit of the entire village. Plus the trees will be very beneficial in the future when they are full grown. Also, I mentioned last time that each person gets a bar of soap every time they plant a tree (which is worth like double a daily wage). Then if in 3 months the tree is doing well they get sugar, which is another really special item of food that people in the village don’t normally have. The money to support this project comes from sponsors in America.

So when we finally got to the village (2 hours later than we planned.. typical Africa time, I’m starting to get used to it), we got out of the Matatu and there was a girl bringing out chairs and benches for us to sit on. We met a few people, but the village basically looked bare. So Bobby started showing us different plants. We got to see coffee trees, mango trees, banana trees, corn, beans, yams, jackfruit trees etc. We also looked at the church they built in the village.. which was just a little room that was built. But either way, it’s still pretty awesome that they have a little church there.. where they actually used corn husk and water to write Bible verses on the inside walls.

Also there was this little boy that was just staring at us and following us. Before we new it he was at the top of a mango tree picking a mango to eat. It was really impressive that he was up there. It was high, I thought he was a bird at first. So after looking at some of the plants, we decided to take some jerry cans (yellow cans they use to carry water) and walk down to the water well and bring back some water. DOT DOT DOT. I don’t think we knew what we were getting into when we made that decision.

So we started to walk down the dirt road with about 5 to 10 kids following us and laughing at the girls cause we were trying to carry the jerry cans on our heads. (It is only proper that the girls/women carry the water.. not the men.. yah, I don’t think I would like village life too much). So on our way to the water well (which doesn’t even have clean water), we stopped to see how some of the Mvule trees were doing that they planted a few months ago. Bobby was so excited to see how they were doing, and they were so excited to show him how well the trees were growing. It was really cool to see.

After we saw the trees, we took a break to eat JACKFRUIT, which I see people eating all the time in the town, but I never knew what it was until today. If you don’t know what jackfruit is, its like the size of a watermelon (although it can be a lot larger), its green and prickly on the outside, but yellow on the inside. You have to rip pieces off and bite off the white fiber like part and then you can eat it! It tastes like a mixture of juicy fruit gum and bananas! It was SO GOOD, but SO STICKY. We had to us petroleum jelly to get the stickiness off and then use water and soap to clean our hands.

After the jackfruit, it was time to get back to the road to get some water. After at least another mile of walking, we finally made it. The jerry cans were extremely heavy (and they didn’t even fill them all the way up because they knew we weren’t as strong as the women in the village). They were awkward to carry and they didn’t have caps on them. The boys definitely had to help. We did a teamwork carry (where 2 people held on to the handle in order to carry the cans the like 2 miles back to the village where we were). When we finally arrived in the village, I was exhausted because it was hot and they were heavy. I just can’t imagine that women and kids make that journey at least 3 times a day. It’s honestly UNREAL. But I am so thankful I got to experience it (well sorta, I didn’t even carry it far by myself.. but I got the point.. it is really tiring and difficult to do).

When we got back we learned that Tom’s niece passed away today (Tom was with us). She was three years old, and she had be crushed by a dish rack and he had just seen her the day before… We were all blown away and stunned by the news. And you could see the sadness on Tom’s face. It was really sad, but we prayer for both Tom and his family. And we know she is now in a better place.

After the heartbreaking news, we ate dinner in the village. Rice and cabbage (with our hands again). It was tasty.. and this time the portion was more reasonable so I actually “cleared the mountain.” We learned to say “thank you for cooking” in Lusoga, and each of us went up to the woman that prepared our food and thanked her. She.. like all the women was one her knees to greet us. (Cultural difference: Women get on their knees when greeting men or maybe its visitors or “superiors,” either way it is a really weird thing to experience, and kinda just didn’t rub me the right way.. but what can you do.. that’s their culture?). Then the chairman of the Mvule Project in the village spoke to us. He told us about how the project was going and thanked us for coming.

After everyone was done talking and we greeted everyone goodbye, it was back to the Gately.. (an hour and half later). The village had been a long and tiring day, but an awesome day to learn and grow. It’s just a completely different lifestyle out there.