The Village

Today was the best day of the whole trip. We went on what they called the "the rural visit". We took the bus out to the village that Prof. Senteza, who's is actually from Uganda, grew up in. The area is predominately agricultural and we had the privilege to tour one of the more prominent farms there. I mean he only had 7 acres but there must had been 9 different crops - pineapples, peppers, cocco, coffee, banannas, things I can't spell.

I got to tell you though this is the first place I felt I understood what they were doing and where their future was going. Some of the places in the city just seem so screwed up due to a lack of resource both material and intellectual and on top of a government that is so backed up in corrupt political bullshit.

This made sense to me though. The way they planted the crops, the fertilization and irrigation they used, the use of crop variation to maintain soil quality it all had a understandable purpose.

The farmer, Abraham, was 70 years old and nicest, old-school grandfathery type guy you ever met. After having us touring his farm he took us back to a residence in town were his grandchildren performed a whole routine of songs accompanied by dance. It was so incredibly hospitable.

Even the smells were better. Natural smells. The air out in the rural areas is clean and everything is so beautiful. I mean the village is still devasted by poverty like everything else here but there isn't any smog or piles of burning trash that you find in the city. You can pick fruits right off the tree and eat it. In fact at one point in the afternoon they cut down a jack fruit which looks like a giant torso-sized hedge apple that looks like pineapple inside with alot of seeds and everyone got a chuck.

It's just really beautiful out here in the country.