Archive for category: How’s Africa?

You’re sitting in your living room on a Friday night watching a movie as a family. The power blinks. You realize town power has gone off and your house is now running on the back-up battery power. You look at the clock. It’s 7 PM. You know it’s probably load shedding and the power will be off all night.

What is load shedding? you might ask.

Load shedding = turning off power to part of the grid, or load, so the rest of the grid has has full power (instead of a brown out – dim lights, not enough power to run appliances, etc.). In other words, part of the power load has been shed. So load shedding.

Load shedding is a way of life in many parts of the world. With only about 30% of the population of Uganda connected to power in the first place, electricity is often not seen as a necessity of life.

Certain times of the year, we plan to have the power off at least 3 days a week. It’s not so much of a hassle during daylight hours. We have solar power to run our house. But at night it’s more of a challenge.

We hadn’t been here long when we invested in a battery back-up system – or batteries and an inverter strong enough to power most things in our house. We can run lights, some fans, and the fridge, and even do laundry during the day because we use a power efficient washer. The batteries won’t run our water heater or dryer. We can run the freezer on them during daylight hours when the sun is shining but we have to turn it off at night if the power is off. As long as you keep the freezer shut, everything stays frozen and it’s not a big deal.

We keep flashlights handy for those times when things don’t work like they should. Thankfully, those times are rare. 

One example of this happened when we’d only been here a couple years. The power company was load shedding three days a week for 18-24 hours at a time, but they started leaving it off longer. We didn’t even have enough time with the power on to fully charge our batteries for when it would go off again.

Another example is when we’ve had a cloudy day, so there was no solar power coming in. If the power is off that night, it’s really off for us. 

Next time you flip on a light or open your freezer or throw a load of laundry in the dryer, pray for missionaries in places without reliable power that God will give them grace to handle this aspect of culture stress.

Mosquitoes. One of the most annoying creatures known to man. They are also one of the most deadly.

Every year nearly 700 million people get sick from mosquito borne illness resulting in over 1 million deaths. Almost half of those deaths can be attributed to malaria.

Almost half of the world population is in danger of contracting malaria. Approximately 212 million cases of malaria are reported annually with almost 500,000 people dying of the illness. These are only the reported cases. Countless others suffer and die of the disease without ever seeking treatment, including thousands of children.

Malaria prevention has been first and foremost in our minds the entire time we’ve lived in Africa. So far, only two of our family have ever had it and that was in the first 6 months of us living here. We’d broken some of our prevention rules and people got sick.

I’ve had numbers of people ask me about malaria prevention and treatment. Let me give you a rundown of what I tell those who have asked.

1. Take the prophylaxis

Chances are, if you are planning a trip to a place in the world where malaria can be contracted, the CDC or your local board of health will recommend a preventative (or prophylaxis) for you to take in addition to any travel vaccines you will need.

Take it. There is no sense in you contracting malaria on your two week trip to Africa or Asia and then struggling with malaria the rest of your life. First world countries don’t know how to recognize or treat malaria.

You’ll need to get the medicine – usually either quinine or an antibiotic like doxycycline – and begin taking it at least a week before your departure date. This allows it to build up in your blood and form a hostile environment in which the malaria parasite can’t survive. You’ll also need to continue taking the preventative for at least a week after returning to the states.

2. Use a mosquito net at night.

Mosquitoes only hunt at night. That is when you will be most vulnerable to them. You should sleep under a mosquito net to prevent getting bit by them.

Most hotels will provide them. If they don’t have them in the rooms already, you can request them. Sometimes they will also provide bug spray that you can use just outside your door and windows in the evening.

3. Stay indoors in the evening and early morning.

We try to make sure we are inside with all our doors shut by sunset. Mosquitoes are most active at sunset and sunrise. They are desperate to feed at those times.

Try to be inside a well lit building with screens on the doors and windows. If this isn’t an option, request the doors and windows be shut or shut them yourself. You can use bug spray at the windows and doors to prevent mosquitoes from even trying to get in.

Doing these three things will prevent most, if not all, malaria. It’s that easy.

~ ~ ~

We live here long term and so have slightly different practices for prevention.

First of all, we don’t take a prophylaxis. Well, technically we do, but not in the conventional sense. The long term side effects of the prophylaxis are serious. We opted for a more natural approach that has been effective so far.

There is a tree that grows here and in most tropical climates called a Neem Tree. 1-2 leaves per week are sufficient to kill any malaria parasites in the blood stream. We have a tree growing in our yard and everyone gets a leaf every week. You can also make it into a tea and drink it. It’s nasty, don’t get me wrong, but there are no long term side effects that we’ve been able to find.

We don’t use mosquito nets but prefer sleeping with a fan blowing on us at night.

We also treat everyone with sweet wormwood (Don’t let the name fool you. It’s not sweet.) and black walnut extracts every 3-6 months for a general anti-parasitic. The sweet wormwood specifically targets blood borne parasites, including the malaria parasite.

So the next time you are traveling overseas to places you could potentially contract malaria, remember those three tips. Feel free to contact me with any other questions you might have about it as well.

Happy Traveling!

African animals used to roam freely all over the savannas. People lived around them like they were a normal part of life. 

Today, most of the animals you typically associate with Africa are only found on game preserves. This is to not only protect the animals but also to protect the people. Hippos kill more people in Africa than lions. In fact, the only thing that kills more people is the mosquito. Cape buffalo can tip over vehicles, as can elephants.

I’m going to let the photos that we’ve taken over the course of our time here in Uganda speak for themselves. There are two things missing.

First of all, we sometimes see small monkeys on our way to church but we’ve never gotten a picture of them because they run away as soon as we slow down to take it. 

Second, I’m beginning to think the African lion is a myth. Oh, sure, other people see them, but we never have. That’s why there are no pictures of lions. They should put up signs like the dust storm warning signs in New Mexico — “Lions may exist.” 

And so, for your enjoyment, a few of the animals we’ve seen here in Uganda. How many of them can you name? How many have you seen in the zoo?

(Interesting parenthetical: A few years ago, we were driving to Kampala and saw a zebra dead by the side of the road, killed by a semi. Where else but Africa do you find zebras as roadkill?)

A few years ago, my dear friend, Rachel, came to visit us here in Uganda. She spent a few weeks in Kenya first. The people she was with in Kenya warned her, “Uganda is banana country. You’ll eat so many bananas while you’re there!”

I’m not sure we fed her any bananas at all while she was here visiting, which is ironic because Uganda actually is known for their bananas.

Isingiro, the district immediately to our south, grows many of the bananas that are eaten throughout the country. Kabingo has even put up a statue commemorating this fact (pictured in the above photo). Whenever we drive to the refugee camp, piles of matoke stalks line the side of the road in readiness for the huge trucks that come to pick them up and bring them into the cities, particularly Kampala. Men push bikes laden with bananas along the side of the road. I’ve seen as many as 10 banana stalks on a bike at a time – or around 500 pounds of bananas.

We were told that there are 40 different varieties of bananas. I only know of 4 personally, and we have all of these growing in our yard. We have our own mini plantation in our yard with 20 banana plants. Each plant puts off 3-4 shoots at a time but usually only one of these is producing a stalk of bananas.

Note the banana plant at the far left of the above picture. This is a red banana plant. Even the plant itself is red. They produce bananas with a red skin that are huge and sweeter than any of the other bananas. They are used by some to make beer and wine, though I’ve never been able to figure out how you’d do that with a banana. That said, there are vendors selling banana wine at every trade show.

Next in line is a sweet banana plant, called a kabalagala. The bananas they produce are smaller “snack pack” sized bananas, about half the size of the ones you buy in stores in the US. They are our personal favorites so most of the plants in our yard are kabalagala plants.

Next is the matoke (ebitookye here in Mbarara) or cooking banana. They are the most common variety here. Farmers cut and sell the stalks while they are still jade green and they are peeled and eaten soon after. They taste sort of like potatoes, but that really isn’t even close to the flavor. Even the plantains you get in the States don’t taste the same. We love the flavor and enjoy them every time we get the chance!

Another variety (not pictured above) is bogoya. These look and taste the most like American bananas of any of the varieties we’ve tried. 

How can you tell the difference between the sweet bananas and the cooking bananas, you might ask? Note the plant (you might call it a tree or a trunk, but it is really a plant) in the picture above. The sweet banana has a green plant. The cooking banana (or matoke) has a black plant.

Now, I leave you with a picture of the biggest stalk of matoke I’ve ever seen. The entire thing was almost as tall as me and it probably weighed as much as I do. It had at least five poles propping it up when usually one is sufficient. 

And that, dear reader, is a quick introduction to the bananas of Uganda.