Its been several months since I decided to leave the city life of cable TV, internet, electricity, a bed and all other comforts for life in Nanda, often when I told my colleagues I was off in Nanda.They always immediate asked 'Where is that?' ….Nanda is located close to Karuma I tell them in 'Ohhhh!' they cry in realisation and within the same breath ask why I would do that!.
It is hard to explain to my friends that I choose to sleep in a grass thatched, mud walled hut and that I would choose to spend hours in the fields . I try to tell them that I decided to become a farmer just like they choose to be doctors, teachers or lawyers. 'I want to be a farmer' and at that they shake their heads or mutter something unintelligible, i understand them for farming is not considered a career in Uganda.
And so on days like this I am tempted to move back to the city permanently, for while no one was home some people broke into my hut making off with many basic items and my solar lamp a rare piece and perhaps my most prized possession in the hut .I thought living in rural Nanda where farms do not need fences meant it was safe , sure our walls are not strong enough but neither are our doors, having visited the rural area quite often growing up, it s not often that residents even locked theirs doors and so imagine my surprise at finding a huge hole in the wall of my hut. Times have indeed changed!
On realisation that i had just been robbed when i got home that evening, i was cursing the reasons for having had to be a way from my compound for so long, but the local council leader had called a meeting. I had only recently moved my pigs from Kigumba, and my neighbours being largely moslem were complaining about the presence of pigs in their area.i had spent most of the meeting being cautiously explaining that the land was private and that I could do whatever I wanted on it, the law is clear on this issue.
I had hastily transferred my pigs from Kigumba and as such had not had the time or money to construct proper housing for them, I had quickly put up a make shift sty but the rains were not in on my plans and they quickly destroyed my little setup causing a mess and leaving the place in such a stench.This issue i promised to resolve and asked the community to give me a week, but where was I to get quick money to set up a proper sty. My eventual plan is to generate natural gas from the pigs waste for electricity on my farm I read somewhere that this was possible but its too costly and i need to research it further. All i could raise was some money for the construction which is now almost complete, for now the waste is being turned into manure - the gas will just have to wait a few more harvest.
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