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My (Gerry's) last week in Uganda was a bit frantic as the lawyer informed me that 'Uganda Food Company' had been incorporated as a limited company and the documents could be picked up the next day, which gave me one day (Friday) to open a business account at the bank. I'd found another very good candidate for being a manager of the company and I introduced him to the manager I've already employed, and I'm hoping they will work well together! I've been given 7 acres of land to lease for 10 years, which we will plant with pineapples. Three men have been employed to dig the land and prepare it for planting. Unfortunately pineapples take 2 years to grow before you can harvest them, so it's a long term investment. Also I'm trying to buy 6 acres of land near where I'm living, on the shores of Lake Victoria. I'm waiting for the landowner to bring confirmation of the measurements before I negotiate a price. The company will start by setting up a solar drying procedure for pineapples and bananas, which we will then sell to a local exporting company called Fruits of the Nile.

Where did the name 'pineapple' come from? On the second voyage to the New World in 1493, Columbus and his crew encountered a fruit which they had never seen before. One of them described it as being 'in the shape of a pine cone, twice as big, which fruit is excellent and it can be cut with a knife, like a turnip and it seems to be wholesome'. Its resemblence to a pine cone gave rise to the fruit's English name of pineapple, while its Latin name Ananas came from the word 'nana' which was the local people's name for the plant. Interestingly the local Luganda name for a pineapple is also 'ananas'.


(If you wish to purchase any of the photos shown please click here)


The woman who gave me the land for 10 years is quite an extraordinary person. Her name is Viviane and she is 75 years old and lives in a mud hut in a village deep in the bush. She had 10 children, 8 of which died before the age of 18 and the other 2 died shortly thereafter. The causes of death included measles, malaria, cancer, war, and AIDS. Her husband who was related to the Royal family in this region died in 1993. Viviane got elephantiasis in 1959 which produces grossly enlarged limbs, in her case her legs, which meant she could only crawl around on her knees. When the AIDS team I used to work for in 1994 visited her she was found in tattered rags, crawling in the mud digging her crops! She was expected to die very shortly. The nurse on the team treated her open sores and gave her medicine for the disease.

About 3 weeks ago Viviane visited our house (Sam and Eva’s house), she was walking unaided and dressed beautifully in a traditional gomes and she looked about 60 years old. Eva at first didn’t recognize her as the same woman! She now looks after 3 orphans from her village (she sold her only other dress to send one of them to school), has established a church of over 40 people in her house and she wants to build a brick house for her 2 surviving grandchildren and also to build an orphanage for 40 children! Mind you she has no money! She wants my company to cultivate the land for the next 10 years by which time the grandchildren will be able to inherit it while it is productive.

She very much reminds me of Moya (some of you may have known her, she died a couple of years ago) who also had a crippling disease and was also one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met. Such adversity, although not to be wished on anyone, can produce the most amazing people to be a part of this mortal coil.

My time in Africa was a strange mixture of extremes; boredom, frustration, excitement, and opportunity. The longer I spend in Africa the more I realize the huge differences in culture. Sam’s church (or should that be God’s church?) at Bushfire illustrates some of the differences (especially if you contrast it with the church I grew up in!). Here are some notes I took last Sunday:

I sit on a bench at the back of the church
20 children sit in a semi-circle staring intently at me.
One of the children has a t-shirt stating “For Fox Sake Ban Hunting!”
Some other kids are dancing
The guy who is supposed to be policing the kids is sound asleep
A little girl with very big ears sits next to me giggling and holding on to my arm
She smells of urine
Preacher shouts “Hallelujah!” when he’s stuck for something to say
When the preacher pauses, the guy playing the keyboard gives a little riff.
Church started at 10am, some people still arrive at 1pm
A woman’s breasts hang out her dress
A little girl wears a frilly white dress and chunky trainers
People come and go like the entrance to London Bridge Tube Station
Karaoke worship, singing along to a tape
Boiling hot day, boy beside me has on a corduroy suit with a fur collar
Speakers bigger than at Pink Floyd concert
Ends with auction of eggs, avocados, sugar and assorted items from collection

Aaah Africa!

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