Too Many Muzungus

On one of my first days here, the other KIHEFO interns and I were walking back to the KIHEFO apartments when we saw a little boy staring at us. We waved at him, and he ran towards his mother shouting, “I have sean too many muzungus!”. Muzungu is the Swahili word for foreigner that has been adopted in all the local languages throughout Uganda, including the two local languages in Kabale: Rukiga and Runkanyole. By now I have gotten used to the fact that when walking through town or driving through villages, I will here children, and even adults, shouting “muzungu, muzungu!” when they see me. The children usually wave and smile, as they are excited to see new people; the adults in town who say it are often boda drivers (bodas, or boda bodas, are the motorcycle taxis that are a very common form of transportation here).

On Thursday, we went to a village nearby to take a tour of a fish farm and learn about sustainable agriculture here in Kabale. Of course, along the drive there, children who were walking home from school waved excitedly at our van shouting “muzungu!”. As I mentioned in a previous post, protein deficiency is the most common form of malnourishment in southwestern Uganda. KIHEFO has started a rabbit breeding project to promote an easy, affordable solution to this problem, and there is a local man who has spent the last seven years fish farming to promote a sustainable form of protein for the community. We visited him yesterday, and through one of KIHEFO’s translators Lillian, learned a lot about what this man does. He built all of his ponds by hand, and moves the fish from the breeding grounds to other ponds in small buckets by running up the mountain when it is time for them to leave the breeding grounds. He breeds tilapia, milacarp, and catfish. Below are some pictures.

On Friday, we went to Rubira Primary School. Rubira is a village within Kabale district. There we taught the P7 children (the equivalent of 7^th or 8^th grade in the US) about the benefits of using organic soil over traditional, sandy soil, and taught them how to make layered compost that would be useable soil within 30 days. We also got to learn some traditional dances and songs from the children. Below are some pictures.