Colourful Bush Cricket

snowgood

Jun 29

Whilst we were in Uganda looking at Help Hope Action's Disability Centre, School, and Farming initiatives I came across a few of these colourful creatures.

Speaking to one of the local agricultural experts he said they rarely suffer from locusts in the north of the country, and seem relatively unconcerned that this "Bush Cricket" was likely to do much harm to the maize crop.

The soil here is fertile, but the hard labour is almost entirely done by hand. It wasn't unusual to see a mother with a mattock in hand and baby wrapped around her waist trying to break up the ground.

On cool mornings (without a dependant on your back) this could be an almost tolerable existence, but during our stay the sun burnt down and temperatures rose above 30 degrees centigrade. It looked like hard work even for healthy young men.

HHA have leased large tracts of land, and offered hope to over 150 families. they've even hired in tractors to accelerate the work. Sadly such useful machinery is seldom seen, hard graft seems to be the only option for most families.

One of the team asked about the productivity, and Carwyn pointed out that the standard tracts of land physically cannot sustain a typical family. Indeed within the standard allotment the maximum yield is hindered further in that the Roundell (living quarters) eat into the space available.

As we went through various settlements the locals kept praying for rain, and on one Sunday gave thanks that they'd had two heavy downpours. Others said "It isn't enough".

In the UK everyone is worried about inflation, but food is still relatively cheap. One of my voluntary roles here in Sussex includes buying chocolate for local refugees. Yesterday I bought 350 bars of chocolate for £55!

That's so cheap. There's definitely a bigger challenge in Palorinya that Crawley when it comes to survival. May I be forgiven every time I moan about my circumstances, in all honesty we have a good deal living in Britain.

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