Rural Homestay in Kapchorwa, Uganda

        For about a week in the end of October, I lived in a rural village near Kapchorwa in Western Uganda. This is Sabiny land in the mountainous county near Mt. Elgon. The scenery was absolutely stunning with giant terraces of volcanic rock and the lush green of coffee and banana groves. I stayed with Rev. Moses Salimo, his wonderful wife Justine and their children: Isabel (age 6) and Ephraim (5 months). Their home is a mud house with a tin roof and they have a separate kitchen hut. We cooked matooke, rice and beans over a wood fire every evening and washed our dishes outside on a makeshift shelf. I loved living with no electricity and no plumbing. The nights were so quiet and family-focused and the stars shone so brightly there. During the day, I helped a lot with baby Ephraim. He was adorable but never wore a diaper so I got peed on multiple times a day! Having naked kids running around all the time was totally normal after awhile. It was so muddy there that to keep clean clothes on kids was practically impossible anyways. I also helped with some of the coffee production. I sat for hours sorting dried coffee beans with random neighborhood kids who all wanted to touch me and pet my crazy African hair. I loved harvesting dried corn and carrying water from the local well on my head. My jerry can was only 10 liters but it was still so hard to balance on my head. My Mama Justine carries 20 liters of water on her head every day without using her hands.

           I really enjoyed cooking with Justine and talking to Rev. Moses about church, coffee and local poverty. He also took me to visit extended family and close friends. One friend we visited did not even speak English but she was so excited to host me and made an entire meal in the middle of the afternoon for us. Hospitality in Uganda is amazing and always involves more food then one can eat. So much chapatti, Ugandan donuts and lots and lots of tea!

         Rev. Moses is a priest at the local Anglican Church but since he is not on salary with the church he is also a coffee farmer. He was so excited to show me his coffee “gardens” and to teach me all of the processes of picking, pulping, cleaning and drying coffee beans. By the end of the week we roasted the coffee and after pounding it, they mixed it with fresh, boiled milk. So so yummy and I really like pounded coffee because it is smoother then brewed coffee. Rev. Moses is part of coffee growers association with about 25 other community growers. They sell their specialty, organic coffee to Fair Traders from Denmark. Though this partnership is very beneficial for the community, they need other partners in order to expand their association to include more growers and have the funds to pay for school fees for their children. I really want can help connect this wonderful family to more consumers in the US who are interested in partnership and who will pay fair wages. Does anyone have any ideas on who I should talk to when I get back to the states?

        Anyways, I had a wonderful time in Kapchorwa and really connected well with my family! I learned a lot about what poverty is and is not. Being poor does not mean living in a hut or lacking electricity. Bucket showers and cooking over a fire is not poverty. I cannot define poverty, but I am more inclined to agree with the definition presented in the book When Helping Hurts.  Poverty is broken relationships with God, others, self and creation. According to this definition, my family in Kapchorwa is less poor then many Christians in middle class America. I cannot overlook their material poverty, but there is so much that I can learn from them and their rural community. This does a lot to kill the god-complex that I naturally have as a privileged American that I am supposed to “save Africa.” What a stupid assumption! The Africans are very capable of dreaming within their communities and helping themselves. Partnership has so much to offer both us and them. I really hope to continue my friendship with my host family and to learn more about how Christ is alive and working in their rural setting.