I have to say the last month has been such a flurry of activity: working hard on curriculum development and planting crops at the farm. I am excited to say that we are now finished with the outlines of our curriculum development. I was the one heading it up, so that meant many days working with individual staff at the college on the individual programs and late nights editing material when I wasn’t managing things on the farm.

Year 1                                                   Semester 1
Course Code	Course Name	LH	TH	PH	CH	CU
THE 1101	Bible Survey I	45	-	-	45	3
ICT 1101	Basic Computing	30	30	30	60	4
GEN 1101	Communication Skills	20	-	20	30	2
AGB 1101	Introduction to Soil and Plant Physiology	45	-	30	60	4
AGB 1102	Principles of Economics	45	-	-	45	3
AGB 1103	Financial Accounting	45	-	30	60	4
Total CU’s						20
Year 1                                                   Semester 2
Course Code	Course Name	LH	TH	PH	CH	CU
THE 1201	Bible Survey II	45	-	-	45	3
GEN 1201	Christian Worldviews	45	-	-	45	3
AGB 1201	Introduction to Livestock and Dairy Management	30	-	30	45	3
GEN 1202	Research Methods	45	-	-	45	3
AGB 1202	Principles of Agronomy	30	-	30	45	3
AGB 1203	Principles of Agribusiness	45	-	-	45	3
Total CU’s						18
AGB 1204	Internship	-	-	120	60	4
Year 2                                                   Semester 1
Course Code	Course Name	LH	TH	PH	CH	CU
GEN 2101	Christian Ethics	45	-	-	45	3
AGB 2101	Plant Pest Management	45	-	30	60	4
AGB 2102	Small Livestock Care	45	-	30	60	4
AGB 2103	Agricultural Economics	30	-	-	30	2
AGB 2104	Principles of Farm Management	30	-	30	45	3
AGB 2105	Agricultural Policy and Planning	45	-	-	45	3
Total CU’s						19
Year 2                                                  Semester 2
Course Code	Course Name	LH	TH	PH	CH		CU
AGB 2201	Principles of Cattle Management	45	-	30	60		4
AGB 2202	Principles of Crop Production	45	-	30	60		4
AGB 2203	Supply Chain Management	30	-	-	30		2
AGB 2204	Agricultural Marketing	45	-	-	45		3
AGB 2205	Principles of Management	45	-	-	45		3
AGB 2206	Local Economic Development	45	-	-	45		3
Total CU’s							19

This is a the courses we hope to offer in our Agribusiness program. We developed 5 programs: Agribusiness, IT, Child Development, Social Development, and Counseling. Each document was around 50 pages long.         

           At the farm we were very busy the last 6 weeks, as the rains began the end of March. We planted 3.5 acres of corn, intercropped with kidney beans. We planted another 2 acres of Eucalyptus trees and surrounded all of our 15 acres of land with Eucalyptus trees, 1700 trees in all. 

This is what our trees will hopefully look like in a couple of years.

            Some of the other crops we planted were: Napier grass to feed the cows, bananas, mangos, papayas, jackfruit, oranges, and avocados. Most of these fruits we only planted a few of so that we would have them to eat at the school. 

Napier Grass, one of the most common animal forages in Africa.

Maize (corn), intercropped with kidney beans. Both are staple foods in Uganda.

Jackfruit are quite large and hang on a tree in an interesting way.

After it rains, sometimes we get a fog or haze around the mountain.

            Most of you probably heard that I am coming back to the States for 2 months, before returning to Uganda in July. I am excited to see family and friends, be part of my friends’ wedding, and working on our farm. The last 7 months in Uganda have been very good, I praise God for ways He helped me grow spiritually and emotionally by the people and situations He put in my path.

            

So, here is a snap shot of what a week can look like for me. I hope it doesn't bore you. 

Sunday:

        Went to church with 3 other students from our school. After noticing what looked like a fishpond behind the church, I asked to see it. It was indeed a fishpond. The fishpond belongs to the church. After resting in the afternoon, I went to the farm, had supper and called it a day.

The Church's fishpond

Monday:

            Monday I spent most of the day working on curriculum with the other staff. In the evening I made another run to the farm.

Tuesday:

          Made a run to the farm. After finishing there I went to look for a cattle buyer for one of our cows. I went to what looked like the Mbale cattle auction. There were cows, goats, and sheep being sold. Men were standing around and looked like they were bidding on the animals. There were also people butchering some of the animals and selling meat. I found a man who said he was interested in looking at our cow. I hired a motorcycle taxi and we went back out to our farm to look at the cow.

            The rest of the morning I was on the phone. In the afternoon, I prepared for our meeting with the staff for our department of community transformation. The meeting began at 3:30 and lasted for an hour and a half; I chaired the meeting. It was too late to go to the farm, so I had supper and called it a day.

Our cows enjoying their concentrates. 

The feeding pen; the resting pen is the structure in the background.

Wednesday:

            I traveled an hour and a half away to the National Livestock Resources Research Institute. I was interested in learning what forage crops are best for this area of Uganda. They were very hospital to me, showed me around their facilities, and encouraged me to stay in touch with them. The head person has a Ph.D from Florida State University, so it was fun making that connection. On my way back from there, I stopped at the farm and spent the rest of the day there.

You can see some of their forage plots in the background.

Napier Grass canes they will sell to farmers to plant. Napier Grass is a common cattle feed here in Uganda, but they don't normally let it get this old. I was impressed by the height.

A Ugandan square baler.

Thursday

            Prepared I prepared notes and graded quizzes for my afternoon class. It turned out that we didn’t have a class that day because students were doing prayer and fasting for the day. Ended up going with Alfred (the school administrator) to look for a tractor and plow to plow our land.

Friday

            Went to a village and spoke at a church with around 20 farmers. The first part of the day I spoke about the origin of poverty, the importance of taking care of the land, and treating our neighbors well. The second part of the day I asked them what challenges they have growing each one of their cash crops. We spent almost 2 hours discussing how to deal with different problems they have.

Couple of highlights of the day:

A farmer gave his heart to the Lord

·      One of their favorite sayings I taught them “Never put all your eggs in one basket” when referring to planting several different crops to help spread risk.

·      “We need to take care of our land so it can remain for our children” Was their conclusion of the day.

·      I was encouraged to come back and continue working with them, we hope to do a demonstration plot together.

I'm in my glory, talking to farmers about agriculture.

Saturday

            Saturday was a hectic day. Stella (a student I planted a garden with) and I transplanted some cabbages and tomatoes. Then we made a trip to town to pick up feed for the cows. On the way to the farm, the truck had some problems and the job took much longer than intended. After stopping several times along the way, hiring some mechanics to come look at it, getting cheated by one, we finally made it home again.

Some of Africa's beauty.

Trip to ECHO East Africa Symposium and visiting relatives in Kenya

         On the 28th of January, I began my 10 day adventure. The final destination of the trip was Arusha, Tanzania, for ECHO's 3rd East African Symposium. The focus of the 3 day long conference was on different types of agriculture in East Africa; topics ranged from conservation agriculture to raising bees. The symposium was filled with large group sessions, as well as smaller sessions. The speakers and participants were from all over East Africa.

         Since I was going through Kenya to get to Tanzania, I decided to visit my Uncle and Aunt who are missionaries in Kisumu, Kenya. I spend 4 days with them before I headed to Tanzania.

A map depicting my journey.

My 3 year old cousin helping my Aunt grate eggs.

Caught in the act.

My 15 month old cousin was eating a chocolate covered cookie;
he missed some of the chocolate, so my 3 year old cousin gave him a kiss.

        The rainy season begins in March, so many farmers are beginning to prepare their fields to plant maize. I took this picture in Kisumu, Kenya. Because the population is so high in this part of Africa, many farmers have less than an acre of land to farm; 3 acres is considered a large farm.

A field prepared for planting.

On my way to Tanzania, I traveled through some of the highlands of Kenya,
this is where tea, among other crops, is planted.

The road from Nairobi, Kenya, to Arusha, Tanzania, is good;
but the land is drier than where I live in Uganda.

        After we entered Tanzania, we saw a few wild animals, including giraffes. This giraffe was crossing the road in front of our bus. The driver stopped and was letting us see and take pictures. Less than a minute after I took this picture, a tractor trailer truck came speeding past us from behind. The giraffe tried to run off the road but, came very close to getting run over by the truck. The giraffe ended up falling into the ditch. It managed to get up and run off into the bush.

Giraffe on the road.

        On my way back from Tanzania, I was able to get a first hand experience of what I had learned had at the ECHO conference. On the one side of the road farmers had hedgerows and annual crops. Hedgerows are important in this drier climate because they help to reduce erosion and increase rainwater infiltration. 

       

On one side of the road in Tanzania, where farmers where crop farming.

 On the other side of the road, the land had been overgrazed. Over grazed land does not soak up water very well and the exposed land is more vulnerable to wind erosion, as you can see.

On the other side where the land is overgrazed;
notice the dust cloud in the distance.

       The ECHO conference was very educational and gave me a chance to meet people all from all over East Africa, working in agriculture development. The networking with many people was my favorite part of the conference. I was surprised the first day when I entered the conference room and saw Dr. Sjoerd Duiker from Penn State! Dr. Sjoerd was doing some work in Kenya, and spoke at one of the breakout sessions. I never had a whole class with Dr. Duiker when I was a student at Penn State, but he was a guest lecturer at a couple of my classes. I had talked with him a few times when I was at Penn State.

Dr. Sjoerd Duiker from Penn State.

Trip to Kidepo National Park

The road to Kidepo National Park.

Karamoja; lots of animals, mainly cows, but a few donkeys too.

The closest we got to Wal-Mart on our trip. When we returned
there was someone selling things here.

Yeah it's me, with several hundred Cape Buffo

        I trust you had a good Christmas celebrating Christ's birth and catching up with family and friends. I spent the early part of the Christmas season traveling. I left the Pentecostal Theological College on the 12th of December and headed north. The first half of my trip consisted of visiting two of our students' churches. Both students are pastors at their churches and are organizing their church members to begin a farming project to help the people in their church. I will tell more about that later.
        The second half of the trip included visiting Kidepo National Park up in the northeast corner of Uganda, very close to the South Sudan border. I met my friend, Emily Arndt and her friend, and toured the Safari with them. There were not many other people there, probably because the Safari is so far off the beaten path. On our way there, there were times we would get to a fork in the road, which was only a little more than a field lane, and wonder which way to take. Often there were no signs telling us where to go. This part of the country is drier than most of the rest of the country. In fact, they told us that before the people in the area had guns in the 1980's, there were wild animals all over this part of the country.
        We arrived at the Safari on Friday evening, December 19th and left Sunday noon, December 21st. The best part about the trip was that Emily took her vehicle and the safari allows people to tour the place with vehicles. So the whole week end we drove around on these trails in the safari and looked at animals. Since it was the Christmas season, we were listening to Christmas music. It is kind of interesting listing to "walking in a winter wonder land" while driving through an African safari.
        There were lots of animals to see! We saw almost 100 elephants, 2 lions, a male and a female, 20 giraffes, hundreds of cape buffalo, a hyena, jackals, monkeys, many different types of deer, zebras, and wart hogs.

Cape Buffalo with Elephants in the back.

        One of the funnest things was what we got to see the animals do. One time we came up on a group of elephants. Two of them started fighting and even trumpeted. They were only 50 yards away. To scare us, they faced us and flapped there ears out trying to look scary. It was scary, but fun at the same time. Then we got to see two lions jump out of a tree 30 feet away and go try to attack a small cape buffalo. The hunt was unsuccessful, but it was still fun watching. The lions snuck up behind the cape buffalo and then pounced at the young buffalo. Just that fast, the mother cape buffalo whirled around and faced the lions. The lions were scared, but tried one more time before giving up. Oh, and we even got to see two giraffes fighting with their necks from far away.

Once they get old, they are kicked out of the herd.

       The cape buffalos were interesting. Most of them moved in a herd of several hundred, but once they got too old and their horns started breaking, they would leave the herd. So as we drove around, we kept seeing these old cape buffalo by themselves and with two or three others. Our guide called them "losers".

African safari.

       The guide was optional, so we hired him for Saturday morning, which was worthwhile because then we knew where to go the rest of the weekend. Plus, he was the one who spotted the lions in the tree. We almost drove right underneath the lions without seeing them in the tree above us. They were just there resting; we spent a lot time just watching them. It was really interesting watching lions in the wild that close up.
       One of my highlights was just the wide, open expanse of the safari. It was the first time I felt like I was really in an African safari. Grass, and occasional trees, with plenty of wild animals roaming around. The fact that we could go on any trail we wanted to by ourselves was a lot of fun. And then seeing the animals fight and the lions try to attack the cape buffalo was really fun to see.

Nice close up of an Elephant.

       I got back to the college on the 23rd of December. I did feel a little lonely over the Christmas season, but I went to another missionary families house for Christmas day. What made it feel even more lonely was that all of the students from the college were gone, as well as most of the staff. Next week school starts and some of the staff have come back already, so it is starting to feel more normal here at the college.

Hey there giraffe.

Here kitty-kitty

       Over this Christmas season, I was reflecting on God's mercy and care on the Old Testament characters Ahab and Jacob. 1 Kings 21:25-28 says Ahab was the most wicked king, but God still had mercy on him when he repented. Jacob too was a deceitful person (his name actually means "he deceives"), and yet God still looked out for Jacob and took care of him. This really gives me hope; I struggle at times with thinking that how well I obey God and do everything right is how well God will treat me. And yet, this was not the case for these two Old Testament characters. God was still faithful to them even in their unfaithfulness. I don't say this to allow us to live reckless lives, but to encourage us and help us live our lives without fear of messing up. I am thankful for God's mercy and care for my life, because most of the time I don't deserve it.
       Well, that is going to have to do it until next time.

Ever wonder how a lion gets out of a tree?
And yes we are really that close.

Nice tusks there, buddy.

Ok, I don't know exactly what I'm doing, but probably
analyzing some plant or soil

We saw lots of these.

We even saw zebras.

Uganda Wedding and Community Development Project in Iganga

Uganda wedding

Juliet and I returning from the wedding;
notice the craziness of our town,
under construction.

         One of the teachers here at the school got married yesterday. All of us staff where invited. I did not want to go by myself, so I asked the other staff here when they were planning to go. They told me that they had other things and were just planning to go for the reception. All except for Juliet; so I went with her. I asked Juliet when it started "11:00, but we shall leave at noon, because the bride will still be getting ready and won't get there at 11:00" ok sounds good with me, I had some things I wanted to get done in the morning. So I came back from the farm around 12:30 and get ready. Juliet tells me she still needs to pick up the gift the school had bought for the bride. So we hop on motorcycles "boda-boda's" or the Ugandan version of a taxi. We get to the church at around 1:00 pm and the groom and groom's men are slowly dancing up the isle with anyone from the audience dancing with them; with loud music too, of course. No problem, we walk in and find our seats; since everyone else is up getting pictures, I do too. Then we wait for the bride to come. The waiting is filled with very loud music, singing, dancing, etc. Around 2:00 when the bride is supposed to come in, someone comes  up front and says "she is still not finished decking out". "Bring her in anyway" they said. So half an hour later she makes her way in. They have the red carpet laid down for her. There is an arch and a ribbon she

Standing ready for the bride to come; notice
the ribbon across the door.

cuts when she comes in. Of course everyone gets up from their seats and goes to meet her as she comes through the arch, with loud music and dancing. Since I was trying to get video footage of this, they kept telling me "go up front there so you can get a good picture"; so I stood where I could get "ok" footage. Finally, the bride makes it to the her seat, the choir sings a song challenging the bride to treat her husband well and the husband to treat her wife well. Then there is a sermon, presenting of the rings, and the vows. Oh, and Juliet is still was trying to figure out how to get the mattress delivered as the gift. So in the middle of the vows, she makes a call to see if they can deliver the mattress. The call was no problem because other people were also answering their phones during the wedding. It was so loud no one cared about people making phone calls anyway. After the prayer of dedication, Juliet and I leave for the reception. Except she needed to pick something up at home and I needed lunch. So She drops me off in town to get food.

Dancing up the isle;
Make sure you watch to the end.

         After 30 minutes she comes back with some others from the school who are now with us because it is time for the reception. The reception is packed out; people are seated on chairs facing the front, there is loud music playing. There is a table for the bridal party and wedding cakes, lots and lots of cakes. Finally the bride and groom arrive and dance up the isle. It takes 10 minutes for them to dance up the isle. Here again everyone is around them and getting pictures, so I do too. They serve everyone cake first. One thing that was different was that the groom sat on a chair and the bride at his feet on the floor; the bride fed him cake and then a glass of juice to wash it down. Then they switched places. If it

This was cool, except I don't know if I could
do it without cracking up.

was me, I would probably burst out laughing in the middle of taking the juice (Those who know me well could also see this happening). Then the bride and groom left; the bride changed dresses, came back in and the couple gave cakes as gifts to groups of people they appreciated. Our school got a cake. Then people presented their gifts to the couple. Finally, at 8:00 we came home, I was ready for it to be finished! As I reflected back at the wedding, I realized that the order of the wedding was similar to our weddings; the only difference was that each process was done differently, ex. dancing with the bride as she comes up the isle. 

Visiting a Friend in Iganga

Pastor Daniel's wife; she was so proud of her 300 chickens,
it reminded me of my mom.

      Several weeks ago I went and visited a friend in Iganga, a town about 1.5 hours away. I had met Pastor Daniel on facebook. Luke Kuepfer has worked some with Daniel and connected me with him. As it turns out, Pastor Daniel is a man with a very big vision for raising up Christian leaders. He has planted 3 churches, speaks on the radio 3 times a week, does community development up in northern Uganda, and has 5 acres of land that he farms and hopes to make into a demonstration farm. His wife keeps chickens; they have over 300 laying chickens.

Banana corms, similar to flower bulbs.

        I arrived Friday evening; after getting settled into the guest house that he got for me, we went to church. There we both preached. On Saturday, the goal was to plant bananas on his farm. So we picked up George, a man educated in agriculture who teaches ag at a high school. We went to see one of Pastor Daniel's friends, Pastor Dawson, who has a large farm. Since Pastor Dawson had bananas, we went and picked up plants from him. Now, for those who aren't familiar with bananas plants, bananas spread similar to flowers with bulbs; you plant one stem and after several years, you will have 5-15 small banana plants that need thinned. 

Pastor Dawson and I with his cash crop of corn
he hopes to use to fund his school. It was a 13 acre field.

        Pastor Dawson is also an incredible guy; he is a pastor and runs a school for less fortunate students. Instead of asking for support from the States to run his school, he asked someone in the States to buy him land, so he can support the school with the land. Talk about community transformation! He has 30 acres and hires 15 families to work for him on his farm. His goal is to teach students and other families advanced agricultural practices. He has bananas, passion fruit, papaya, cassava, peanuts, maize, vegetables, soybeans, mangos, oranges, and hopes to build fish ponds. He was intercropping his crops and seemed to know what he was doing. Pastor Dawson is not afraid of hard work either; when we got to his place, him and his wife were both out working on the farm. 

Digging holes to plant bananas.

         Once we got the banana plants, we went to Pastor Daniel's farm. George showed us how to trim the outside layer of the small banana plants to remove the nematodes. They had done some soil preparation several weeks before we got there. They dug a hole 5 ft sq. and 3 ft deep hole. Then they mixed chicken manure with soil and added some leaves into the hole and filled the hole 2/3 full with a soil and manure mixture. After planting the small bulb-like banana plants, we covered them with a thin layer of leaves to keep the soil from drying out. This was a planting technique that Pastor Dawson was using and was having very good success.

Fun picture with Pastor Daniel.

        The next day was Sunday and Pastor Daniel's church had a 5 hour church service that lasted 6 hours. Different ones of us preached and the choir sang a bunch of songs. After the service, several of us were invited to a couples house for dinner. After dinner I returned to Mbale. It was a really good weekend. It was great to see Pastor Daniel's vision for raising up leaders, spreading the gospel, and doing community development work. I could talk a lot about him, but it would take too long. He had been working for the UN, passing out solar panels. He did such a good job that the UN rewarded him with his own van; so now he has his own van he can use for ministry. He loves his wife, family and those close to him. It was very encouraging for me to see his faith and commitment to God and those around him.