Bigodi Cultural Experience

On the Road 

After all that milk, cider and water from last night, I did feel a need to go in the middle of the night but the concern of running into a hippo was greater than my desire to pee.

It pours through the night but has stopped by the time we get up at 6am.  Even though it is still dark, I am not worried as I head to the washroom because other people are already up and about.

A small frog watches me brush my teeth. A young lady beside me curls her eyelashes and applies eyeliner and mascara ???. She then  brushes her  teeth with tap water…I wouldn’t want to be her in a few hours.

I meet John and Bosco at the van. They don’t tell me that they were listening to the snorting of nearby hippos until after we are on our way. I am bummed to have missed that.

We see the sunrise from the van. It is not a gentle sun but a burning ball of orange and red. It’s going to be a hot day.

We have a six hour drive to Kibale Forest National Park. Along the way we will be stopping in Bigodi village. I type this blog post on my phone as we bounce down the two lane highway…often rapidly slowing before hitting speed bumps or coming to an abrupt stop when someone’s goat or herd of cattle wanders onto the road. This happens a lot. Uganda has rumble strips and speed bumps everywhere. It’s hard to drive more than a few kilometres before hitting one and in towns they are even more prevalent.

The scenery gradually changes as we travel into a hilly area. We stop to take in the view of Lake Albert.

I mention to Bosco that I would like to try some local food. We stop at a restaurant for breakfast. I notice a lot of World Vision vans in the parking lot.

I have plantains in a sauce, a round potato that is slightly crispy on the outside, a spinach dish, a chicken gizzard stew, 1/4 of John’s Spanish omelette, a baked donut (different than ours), a banana, cocoa and fresh juice. It is all good. I am told that most of the food is organic.

On the road again, we watch the passing scenes of daily life in Uganda.

Bigodi Cultural Experience

We stop in Bigodi and take the Bigodi Community Walk. It is a wonderful, cultural experience.

We are guided through the town stopping at a local farm stand and through the school yard. Environmental programs are explained. We see many plots of land planted with corn, beans, sweet potatoes and cassova. 

Laughing children pump water from the community well. 

We walk through plots of coffee plants and learn how it’s grown and picked l. Just as it starts to rain, we head to an open building where we interactively learn how to manually make coffee from dried berry to drinkable beverage. We even get to participate in the grinding and picking out seeds that are not up to snuff. Click here for a short video of John pounding coffee.

We next have a home made meal of matooke, corn bread, cassova, beef, chicken, peanut sauce, plantain and more.

Continuing, we walk to another open building where a women’s cooperative is working. They put everything down and dance…then pull first me, then John to dance as well. They then teach me how to basket weave.

Weaver Birds and Banana Man

On our way to our final stop, we come across a flock of bright yellow weaver birds weaving their nests in the trees. Their nests look like hanging balls.

Our final cultural stop is to see Banana Man. He shows us how to make banana juice and also how he makes banana gin and banana beer. He says his father and his father before him also used to be the banana man. He was very proud that the picture of the bananas on the Ugandan 10,000 shilling bill was taken at his place.

Kibale Forest Camp

We head to Kibale Forest Camp which is where we are spending the night. As soon as we get there we see a black and white colobus monkey.

We walk onto the grounds and it’s like arriving in paradise. The grounds are stunning and our tent in front of a river is just perfect. Pictures don’t do it justice.

I fall asleep to the sound of frogs.