Soil Sampling

On my second day of field work I decided to go ahead and start my soil sampling. We went back to Kajumiro and revisited the surrounding farms to get soils. Seemed like the whole village accompanied us to watch the soil sampling process. I think they were all impressed by my big steel soil hammer. After we finished in Kajumiro, we hiked down to another related village center, Kajumiro-Sempenda, that is more in the valley rather than the hilltops as is Kajumiro. Here we interviewed a large gathering of farmers, asking about which crops they plant and their farming practices, then we distributed soap to thank them for their time. The village women were thrilled to get the soap and did the traditional Bakiga dance for me. We had to hire a couple local men to help carry the soil samples and equipment back to the car when we had finished, it was a long uphill climb.

I was exhausted when I finally made it back to my bungalow, but had a fantastic meal awaiting me. My roommate and I have hired a local woman, named Gorret, to clean and cook dinner for us. She takes the literally fresh from the farm fruits and vegetables we buy and makes enough food to feed an army! Between the two of us we can hardly make a dent. Last night for example, we had waiting for us samosas, flat bread, two different kinds of veggie stew, guacamole, rice, potatoes in a tomato based sauce, and fruit salad with bananas, mangoes, and passion fruit. I am going to be completely spoiled by the time I leave here.