Rain rain go away…
Sometimes it feels like I constantly blog about rain… Or maybe I should correct myself and say that, when I do blog, it is often about rain. And this year is no exception!
This year we are having another one of those ridiculously long rainy seasons that I often discuss and photograph for all of our readers. With floods in different parts of the country and numerous people being displaced it has been a trying time for Uganda. People always assume that, as a farmer, I would be dancing in the rain. And while I do relish in the coolness of the weather, it has been very difficult time for farmers here, especially those growing Uganda’s more traditional cash crops.. When I visited my grandmother last week she told me how she had lost the majority of her matoke plantation due to a storm that swept through Fort Portal.
KadAfrica also bore witness to the effects of this particular storm, at both the farm and the office/house. One of our green houses was torn to shreds by the incredibly strong winds that gust through the valley at the farm. And one of the trees at our home/office that was planted by my father lost one of its beautiful branches. While I was sad that this lovely and sentimental tree was now missing a branch, it was perhaps my neighbor who bore the brunt of this—as it unfortunately landed on her house. Luckily the damage was not that serious and we were able to repair it.
Aside from the heavy rains it has been an incredibly busy few months for KadAfrica. As you know we spent some very fruitful weeks at the Unreasonable East Africa Institute, which seemed to be the beginning of a whirlwind of events. In early September KadAfrica as awarded the SEED Africa Award. Rebecca was fortunate to attend the ceremony in Nairobi, which seemed to have been swept by the Unreasonable East Africa fellows.
We were also fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the Unreasonable institute in Boulder, Colorado. This was a great experience for Rebecca and myself. Not only were we able to meet some of the most amazing entrepreneurs from all around the world who are doing some amazing things and changing the lives of thousands, we also got to connect with some world class mentors and investors. We were given wonderful advice about how we can grow and strengthen our business and further benefit the community we work with.
Awesome reunion with the Unreasonable East Africa family in Boulder at the Unreasonable Institute..
My personal highlight of this trip was my adventure up into the mountains to have my first experience with snow! All thanks to my close friend and Unreasonable brother Banks Benitez—Banks, I truly appreciate you taking your time to drive me up the mountain to find that snow, I owe you a lion when you make it back to Uganda!
Me and Banks up in the mountains, i was super hype to get to play in the snow.
At the end of October, we hosted a three-day workshop with our implementing partners to plan out for the next phase of our project.
Three day workshop in Kampala with our partners from CRS and Caritas Fort Portal.
We then hosted an event to showcase the great work that is being carried out by our girls in the West, through some amazing photography and a stunning video put together by CRS (which we promise to share as soon as the final version is up on YouTube!) Two of the GAIN girls from the project experienced their first trip to Kampala, and I must say blew the crowd away with their life stories. And finally last week.
I was also honored to attend the Acumen East African Fellows final selection conference last week in Nairobi; Another fabulous opportunity to catch up with friends family and some amazing East Africans doing awesome work!
It has been a crazy few months and we are super excited to see what the end of the year and the beginning of 2016 has to offer us. We are braving the rains and looking to the future, remembering to tell ourselves that…
It's Bittersweet 