Hello from Uganda

[countryboy]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Janine,

Just read and thoroughly enjoyed this thread...

Wondering how you are doing and whether any locals have taken enough interest in your oven to build their own... also, have you gotten around to improving/altering your oven?

Look forward to hearing from you,

[SteveS]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Janine, it's SteveS from near Arusha in Tanzania. Just wondering how your oven is holding up. Maybe if you are able to share the regrets or do agains in your build, that would be great!

SteveS.

[Filippo]

Re: Hello from Uganda

This build is going to be one for the books so please keep the pics coming and there will be a lot of us keeping watch.

Even watching with anticipation from Afghanistan - you are doing well all things considered

[mustbecrazy]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Janine, you are my new super-hero. Thank you for the advice you gave me on my post. I read all of yours and I am very impressed with your accomplishments both in building a WFO with no "modern" supplies at the corner hardware store as well as your work in Uganda. The world would be a much better place if we all could follow your example in some way: Get by on little and help others more. Keep up the good work and post as much as you can. I'll keep my eye on your blog too! Sincerely Gene.

[Archena]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Hi Janine! Glad to hear from you!

[Janine M. LeGrand]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Hi everyone,
Sorry I've been gone so long. I am fine here and even had a short trip back to the US for a bit. Now back in Masindi, Uganda and hard at work. The WFO is still seeing a lot of use. Not only for cooking, but I've also used it to fire bricks for making rocket stoves. We've made a number of rocket stoves and people like the firewood savings and I like the increased safety for children compared to the open fires commonly used. Less smoke too. As for the cooking in the WFO, lots of things there--roast duck, pocket pies, roast chicken in many flavors, cakes, lots of breads, peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, bisquits, muffins, cupcakes, pretzels and more.
The oven is holding up well though some repairs are needed. Considering the hard use its seen, not a surprise. The hard part is having time to repair the oven --when I have extra time, I'm usually cooking in it!
I am very happy with the oven, and with this forum also. Thanks everybody!

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Hi Janine,

How are you and your oven doing in Uganda ?? Hope its all going well,, Let us know..

Cheers
Mark

[Janine M. LeGrand]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Hi Mark,

You're quite right that this simple life does have a lot of appeal--it is a good way to live despite some real hardships at times. God's plans for us are for good and He prepares and chooses us for things based on how He made us, so this is the right life for me. He also is with us through the hard parts, strenghtening, enouraging and at times guiding us if we just listen to Him.

Here are a few more pics from here. The first is some members of a church group in a program called "Family Life Program" which I am working with. Here some women show off a low-firewood stove which they learned to build through the program. By reducing the amount of wood used for cooking there is less of a burden financially to buy wood or they save a lot of time by not having to gather so much wood. (Also help reduce deforestation, too) I have done a number of teachings such as clean water, nutrition etc with this program. I am also working with the leader of this particular local group to try to build a "rocket stove" (See earlier in this thread--here is where I found out about those) and will meet with him again on Thursday.

In the next picture I am teaching on nutrition at a local church:


Below, I am working with a group of church leaders who did a course on sanitation--here we were making it practical by rebuilding a latrine.

It is not all work of course, and here is a picture of some elephants I saw when I went up to the conservation area on the Nile River. Also, no pictures on the computer yet but for New Year's Day I went to see some White Rhinos--got within about 20 feet of them while on foot. Pretty amazing!


--Janine

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Hi Janine,
Thanks for showing us around, though it must be difficult at times.... It in a way sounds very appealing to live in such a simple way (simple but difficult) Hope all remains well for you and would love to see more pics of your "neighborhood" Good luck to you and your mission in the new year !!!
Cheers
Mark

[Archena]

Re: Hello from Uganda



Happy New Year, Janine!

[texassourdough]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Happy New Year Janine! (and all fellow Forno Bravo addicts!)!

Your story has been inspirational to many of us! Best wishes for a wonderful New Year!
Jay

[Janine M. LeGrand]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Happy New Year everyone!

I was thinking about Mark's question about where I get my food and I went to the market today to buy a few things so I snapped some photos so you all could see what shopping is like here.

Freshly slaughtered beef arriving at the market:


The beef being hung for sale. You might notice the stomach is also being carried in for sale--offal is part of people's diet here:


Fish is mostly tilapia with some nile perch and a sort of catfish:


Lots of veggies of course:


I went in the middle of the day when the market is not particularly crowded, but there are still people milling about, shopping and kids playing. Half of the population here is under 15 years of age so there are kids everywhere:


Hope the picture brought this a bit more to life for you--it is hard to describe things well with only words.

---Janine

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Hi Janine,
wow,, sounds like it could be difficult at times, but also sounds very interesting ..... Once again I applaud you and your efforts.. Did you ever make any progress with the Rocket Stove ?

Thanks for giving us an insight to your world

Cheers
Mark

[Janine M. LeGrand]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Hi Mark,
Your slow cooked pulled pork looks delicious--you've got my mouth watering here. Yeah, I need to get to the door but have a few projects ahead of it that I need to get done first. When I get to the door I want to readjust the doorway arch a bit--I had a little slippage making the doorway arch a bit uneven; obviously I rushed a bit too much in my impatience to get the oven firing.... oh, well. Everything is fixable of course.

May I ask, where you are in Uganda,, are there stores? butcher ? how and where do you if you buy your groceries or are most of your items fresh, home grown, etc,,

Meat such as beef and goat comes from stalls in the market, freshly slaughter and hanging in the open air. If you want pork, you have to go hunting for a pork butcher hidden off away from the market square. Due to the high muslim population pork is kept seperate and in the equivalant of "back alleys," and aside from being "unclean" religously I find the pork butchers a bit dirty at times even by local standards, so obviously I'll make sure to cook it thougoughly.

Fish comes from the surrounding lakes in baskets covered with plant leaves then displayed out in the direct sun on a table. The first time I bought fish here, the fish monger gutted it for me and accidentally the fish slipped and droped in the dirt. "No problem" he said and rinsed it off in a pan of water (obviously used before for cleaning fish guts etc) and bagged it for me. I brought it home, washed and cooked it well and it was delicous and no problems. You have to be a bit flexible about things here-- meat or fish covered with flies, hung without refrigeration etc is just normal life.

As you might imagine, most of my food is actually vegetarian and/or home raised. Let's break down last nights dinner (quiche) to see:

Eggs--I get about 8 to 10 a day from my chickens. Organic, incredibly fresh--can't get better eggs. What I or my staff don't eat usually goes to feed my dog--he gets about 4 eggs a day for protien since he very rarely gets meat. Mostly he eats cornmeal mush and eggs--you have to cook for your dog here instead of buying dog food.

Flour, salt, baking powder, cheese, spices--from what they call here a "supermarket" which is like an old fashioned mom and pop general store about the size of a small 7-11. Generally here there is not much refrigeration, but the "supermarket" does have a freezer and refrigerator so you can get a selection of about 4 or 5 frozen goods. Cheese here is fairly exotic but I can buy one type of cheese (gouda) frozen fairly regularly. Power here is fairly unreliable, so stores like this need to have a generator to power the cold and that gets pretty expensive in petrol costs so most places don't keep cold items.

Onions, spinich, tomatoes etc-- I grow a number of veggies like onions, lettuce, tomatoes, spinich, collard greens, cucumber, green beans plus basil for seasoning. When not ready in the garden or things I don't have I buy from the market square. The market square is an open market with many stalls mostly selling fresh veggies stacked in piles on the stands or in baskets. Meat hangs open in front of butchers, live chickens in cages, sacks of dried beans, rice, cassava (tapioca) etc. Very colorful, a bit crowded and even a little noisy as people bargain--no prices dispayed and bargaining is very common. At the moment, my tomaotes have suffered from my neighbor's free roaming chickens so I bought some from the market. Virtually everything here is organic, fresh, vine-ripened etc so again wonderful quality. The spinich grows really well here--a local type called "dodo" and I have tons in my garden so used that. I also have two large fields I plant for staples--this season I planted maize, soybeans, red beans and white beans. The maize grew very well, but I lost most of my crop to monkeys--I am next to a swamp where people have recently started planting more land driving the monkeys out and they are running around eating everybodys fields. Despite hiring a guard everyday to chase them away I still lost a majority of the crop. I can't complain too much though because for me that doesn't mean starvation--it is just an annoyance. Soybeans and other beans did quite well.


Chicken--when you raise your own food, you don't slaughter an animal lightly. But from time to time you will want meat, have an extra animal, or want to host someone etc. I had a young rooster who suffered a leg injury (caught by a dog) which never recoved well with him remaining lame. Since he really wasn't going to be useful otherwise he eventually became roast chicken and the leftovers into my quiche. In additon to chickens, I keep a small number of goats and ducks.

So that gives you an idea of food here. You can eat really well here if you can cook. No fast food--made from scratch, additive-free, organic, fresh food is the norm. While I do at times long for a Whopper with Cheese, actually it likely would taste very strange to me now and the additives etc would be hard on my system--still long for one though!

--Janine

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Hello from Uganda

Hi Janine,
Good to hear from you,, your food looks excellent... I have cooked with retained heat a few times.. I always use a door though, My favorite is porkloin, (see pics) after a night of cooking pizza's I let the oven cool down to about 300 degrees farenheit and put the pork loin in,(around 9:30PM) close the door and take it out in the morning.. best slow cooked pulled pork ever.. I think you need to get your door going again.. May I ask, where you are in Uganda,, are there stores? butcher ? how and where do you if you buy your groceries or are most of your items fresh, home grown, etc,,
Cheers
Mark