Jews are to Farming as Llamas are to Ice Skating Pt. III

After a chance to rest my feet, we went back outside so I could get a tour of some of the facilities and equipment they are building on site to handle our operations. The picture to the left is the beginnings of an office that will house the local management, and was adjacent to several 6-person huts for permanent workers – similar to freshman dormitories, but filled with wood, grass and day laborers instead of cinder block, kegs and crazy girls from Nyack (I digress).

Right now we just bought processing equipment for a few thousand acres, but it was very cool to watch it in action. First, fruit is taken off of our three types of plants, then dried on a big tarp. Once they are dry, the fruits “pop” (meaning they dance very well with one finger extended), and 3 seeds come out. The husk that remains can be put into a biodigester and used to make electricity, and the seeds are then ready (we literally don’t waste a thing – this will help us power the whole nearby village eventually). The seeds are then put into a crusher, which has two byproducts – a sludgy oil, which collects in a pan, and a very dry cake-like substance. The crude oil is refined very easily, and becomes perfectly usable diesel fuel, and the black cake is compressed and made into charcoal briquettes. So, from one plant, you get 5-6 byproducts, plus the honey from the bees and some other side operations, and absolutely nothing is wasted. This will allow the operations to not only be profitable, but completely self sufficient (and good for the environment) soon.

Right now, everyone uses charcoal for cooking, and to get it, they cut down every tree in sight. If we can make charcoal from something that is just a waste product of ours, then we can stop deforestation (while planting at the same time). Obviously an entire nation burning that much charcoal isn't good in the first place, but given the circumstances, this will at least present a massive improvement for the current way of life. Anyway, here's the process in action:

Below is the crusher, with the dry seedcake coming off to the right

Below is one of two mills, which can either be used to grind food (not shown) or process the seedcake into a fine powder for briquettes.

Around this time, I smelled something burning and was wondering what it was. I had put a whole bunch of lotion on that was supposed to have DEET (for bugs) and suntan lotion in it. Well, as it turns out, the 30 on the front of the bottle had nothing to do with SPF, and the lotion was somewhat oily. In other words, I spent about 11 hours in the African sun - and basted myself first. I feel very diverse..my face and neck are currently Native American, my arms are in Hispanic territory, and anything covered by my clothes could be from Vermont.

This would be a good time to point out that if you want to have a good laugh, ask your African hosts for either suntan lotion or aloe.

We did have to head back into the field though. One of my jobs was to measure out a square acre, and do some calculations to help us work on our yield assumptions. Fortunately, rain was on its way, so my skin was spared. If you blow up the picture below and look very closely at both the left and behind George, you can see 3 of the 4 corner people.

As I worked on setting up the experiment, the rain got pretty serious. If the photo below isn’t the most ominous “before” picture (that also has a rainbow in it), I don’t know what is. As a side note, despite leprechauns, gold and everything else in Uganda, they do not also call rainbows Irish. Also, remember that "wait a bit" weed? While walking around, I had two go through my boots. One 9" spike went all the way through my rubber boots, hiking socks, and substantially into my big toe. That did not feel good. I was going to save it as a souveneir but I decided I would rather use the opportunity to learn Swahili curses and throw it away.

We ran back to the house to enjoy the BBQ that was prepared for us. After finishing my goat, I was sitting on the porch to enjoy a night in Africa and reflect on the trip so far. I was thinking about the people I’ve met, their lifestyle and Ugandan culture, and all of a sudden I was interrupted by very loud humming. I walked to the other side of the porch, and one of the workers was humming Disturbia, the Rihanna song. Sitting and looking out at 8,000 acres of untouched land and hearing that in the background was a little odd but very funny.

I decided to take another cold shower to dull the burning, and now I’m going to bed. We are waking up at 5 AM to head back to Kampala tomorrow.