Notes from Gumutindo

A Fairtrade Co-operative in Uganda

John Harrington is a volunteer from Newtown in Powys. John is currently in Mbale in Uganda with Gumutindo, a Fair Trade Co-operative. He is working with them in a number of ways including organisational development, governance issues and supporting the staff team.John is going to keep in contact with us regularly with his experiences at the Co-operative.

Expenses for the work with Gumutindo Coffee Cooperative Enterprise Ltd are funded under the Wales for Africa Grant Scheme of the Welsh Assembly Government

From Mt Elgon to South Wales: the Fairtrade Organic coffee route 

UGANDA UPDATE

October 2010

It should be the end of the second rainy season here around Mt. Elgon but there is no sign of it so far. There has been a definite change to the pattern of the seasons here that is much talked about. Nearly everybody in this part of Uganda has an investment in the weather because it effects the cultivation of their land and therefore their food supply. But for the moment, food is plentiful and there is more rain than usual not less. For the coffee growers and for Gumutindo the weather is not good news. Before the coffee can be taken in to store here in the Mbale storage sheds, it must be dry and the only way to dry it is by spreading it out in the sun. Even in a tropical sun, that can take some hours and that is the problem. In addition, the roads from the higher producer coops can be impassable even for a small truck after one of the regular thunderstorms and downpour. It was planned that there would be a hundred tons in store by now but there is less than half of that.
The good news is that the new weighbridge is up and running and shortly the new coffee mill, imported from Brazil,a huge investment for Gumutindo, will be operating. Such investment in small-holder based agriculture is not common in this part of the world and it is being made by a Cooperative Fairtrade enterprise largely from its own resources-social and economic development indeed.

I hesitate to wade into Ugandan national politics but I am sure you are going to hear about it so I will do what I can. The president, Mr Museveni is contesting a national election to be held in February 2011. This will be for a fourth term- the constitution was changed to enable him to run for extra terms some time ago.

There were many stories of ballot rigging in the 2006 election and many say that the Electoral Commission which will oversee this election is not independent or balanced, A book critical of the president called "the Correct Line", was recently seized at Entebbe airport and a number of other heavy-handed acts have made people feel that the chances of a fair election are slim. Having said that the level of political debate here seems to me very high and the newspapers are not censored though one of the big dailies is government owned.Half of the population is below 18 and there will be many millions of new voters this time around. But many Ugandans are haunted by what happened under Amin and the status quo promises some stability which Museveni, who was involved in ending that terrible time, will surely make much of. The violence which erupted in neighbouring Kenya after their election in 2008 has also not been lost on Ugandans.

I have been picking up the threads of my work again after a splendid summer in the U.K.. When I left in early summer, I had been involved in planning a tree planting project involving four organisations in the area including Gumutindo. It was all on paper when I left and now there are already a number of nurseries in villages and farmers coops with nurseries established, seeds planted and a good start made on raising a million trees for the Mt Elgon area. This is a modest start-Mt Elgon covers many hundreds of square miles, and the project is more about increasing understanding and awareness of how to manage this valuable resource in a way which does not lead to deforestation. For nearly all of the people in this area, wood is the only way of cooking food, heating water to stay clean and is a vital building material. This project is funded from Wales and linked to a more ambitious forestry scheme for sub-Saharan Africa called "The Size of wales". www.sizeofwales.org.uk

For the rest, I will again be working with the farmer's coops on training to strengthen their organisation over the next two months.

For those who have read previous updates, you may remember reference to a visit from the United Nations Development Programme in the spring of 2009. This was to begin planning a pilot scheme to agree climate change adaptation and mitigation measures for the Mbale region of Uganda. This is a bold endeavour to co-ordinate planning and work with local communities in agreeing, devising and funding climate change measures for the region. Progress has been painfully slow but finally last week, the TACC (Territorial Action on Climate Change) as it is now called, was officially launched here in Mbale. The Welsh Assembly government
has played a key part in moving this forward.

Finally, I have to report on the roads in the Mbale region-simply, they are atrocious and almost unbelievably seem worse than when I was here earlier in the year. Potholes are a huge topic of conversation and I can safely say that potholes in Uganda are "political". If you are running for office, you must promise to do something about them and if you are an incumbent you need to try and repair them or at least fill them with a clay soil before an election. (Timing is important because if you fill them too early, the rain will wash away the clay before election day.) Some wag has said that potholes are a sign that the people with them have not learned to vote properly but my favourite quote is by a Ugandan colleague: "Uganda is the only country in the world where if you drive in a straight line, you must be drunk".

John Harrington

7TH MAY 2010

While late spring turns into early summer in northern climes, here the rainy season continues with some dramatic electrical storms and ferocious downpours that can make a journey back from high on the mountain ,which may have been made on dry roads and tracks,hair-raising if not actually hazardous. More seriously, I have been talking to farmers on many different parts of the mountain about their experience of weather changes and all are saying that the rains are much heavier and seriously eroding the fertility of their light volcanic soil and defeating all the traditional methods they have used to maintain it. I recently planted out some leek seedlings in the garden of the house in which I stay and have just seen how the latest downpour has washed some of them clean away. Many of Gumutindo's farmers work on slopes and the downpours can do even more damage. Not surprisingly some are gloomy about their prospects and the terrible mudslide of early March in which nearly four hundred people lost their lives and many more their livelihoods, is deeply felt.

Here in Mbale, last season's coffee is still being milled and sorted but one warehouse shed is now nearly empty and fifteen containers have set off for Mombasa for shipping around the world. Shortly, the Fairtrade Social Premium will be distributed to the ten Gumutindo producer co-ops. In addition to receiving a fair price and a premium for certified organic coffee, a sum is paid to the societies themselves to use in ways they think will best help the communities in which they work. When the co-ops are young as many of ours are, they will use most of this money to build themselves up often by buying or building a coffee store and office and perhaps give some to a local school or to improve a road. As they become more prosperous they can give more to finance public schemes. I recently visited one co-op which besides funding some solar electrical panels to run a computer which has been donated but is still in cardboard boxes waiting for an electrical supply, want to improve the water supply in the local area with its social premium. Gumutindo is still building its business and its reputation for high quality arabica coffee. With some stresses and strains I know, it is learning to manage a complex co-operative enterprise and the heavy demands of both Fairtrade and Organic certitification, in a difficult global market; increasingly the farmers and their communities will see the benefits of this.

Still talking of coffee, but on a different note. A number of groups have visited Gumutindo here in Mbale from a around the world during the times I have been here. They all have an abiding interest in coffee and I am struck by how many young people from different countries are involved in the coffee trade and have combined good business practice with ethical trading principles. Last week we had a group from Australia, East Timor and the U.S., representing a group called "Just Coffee". The world of coffee is a fascinating one and the trade in high quality fairly traded coffee is growing. So far no groups from the UK have visited so perhaps there are some exciting coffee business opportunities in the UK just waiting for young entrepreneurs!

I am coming to the end this visit to Uganda which started in early March. I hope to return later in the year. These last weeks I have been working with each of the society committees on governance issues and travelling widely on the mountain. Occasionally it can be scary if the rain comes while I am up there but mostly it is a pleasure to see the stunning beauty of this part of east Africa and to meet and be welcomed so affectionately by people in the villages. In my first journal, back in 2008, I gave the names of the ten societies and will repeat them here for those who were not around. You have to say them aloud to appreciate the sounds.
Buginyanya, NagudiBuwira,Nasufwa,Kikuyu,Busamoga,Peace Kawomera,Konokoyi, Bumayoga,Bukalasi, Buteteya

Finally, sometimes in the house where I am staying in the evening, "soaps" made in south America are shown on television. They are about amazingly beautiful and rich people and the contrast with most people's lives here could not be greater. I have to say they are amazingly popular but not to my taste. So I often go out a little way from the house and listen to the frogs which make an amazing rasping sound that can only be described as industrial; if I listen carefully I can hear the crickets and cicadas adding to the "wall of sound". Then skipping about are fireflies which float and weave turning their lights on and off. Sometimes on clear nights when the fireflies go higher, they can be mistaken for shooting stars. In the distance there is often lightning to add to the wonderful and theatrical show. (Only once have I seen aeroplane lights in all the times I have visited here.)

John

7/05/10

December 2009

The second rainy reason is petering out and may indeed have ended-nobody is quite sure- and a hot and dusty time will soon be starting and this to continue until March or even April. In this area around Mt Elgon, the second rains have been good and have given people a chance to catch up through second planting after the losses of the main rainy season earlier in the year. This is not true in other parts of the country, especially in the north where there are still food supply problems and hunger.

The Gumutindo storage sheds in Mbale are filling up with large 60kg bags of coffee beans coming down from the ten producer co-ops on the mountain. Prices are high which is good for the farmers. However, as the season progresses, this puts pressure on Gumutindo finances as the farmers are paid well before coffee arrives with its customers around the world. Under Fairtrade arrangements, it is possible to get some pre-finance from customers and this helps considerably. But it is still an anxious time. The first containers will be setting off for customers in Germany within the next week or so. The compound is now busy with groups of women giving the coffee beans a final hand sort before they are ready for export. They sit under the trees in groups and manage to do this work whilst able to chat and making it look effortless. It must be laborious but it also seems to me both colourful and sociable in the way much agricultural work must have been in the west in days gone by.

I have continued my work under the general heading of "organisational development" and during this period have started some training with the management committees of the producer co-op societies on the mountain. I have found this a real challenge as I try hard to translate some difficult ideas such as the difference between "management" and "governance" into language that can be understood by farmers who sometimes have poor English. The training is presented with Willington Wamayeye, the director and Nimrod Wambedde the chair of the main co-op so I have good translation into the local language if needed. But sometimes it is the underlying ideas behind the words that can cause confusion. As I say, a real challenge but a truly interesting one.

A real highlight of this trip was an invitation to visit a women farmer's drama group recently started in one of the coffee producer co-ops high up on the mountain. The performance was held in a very humble mud and tin roofed shack itself set in beautiful scenery with fine views to the valley below. Children had gathered to watch, aware that something of interest was happening and anyway there was a mzungu(white man) about which itself never fails to arouse interest.
The play, which I cannot do full justice to, was about how growing good coffee using organic principles and being a member of the co-op can be a means to economic and social improvement for women and how this can be of benefit to the whole village community including husbands. What was powerful and telling about this was that the play had grown and taken shape from the women's own discussions. It was a moving experience and as a trainer, I was struck by how the play had dealt with complex and sensitive issues so effectively. It concluded with a song and dance routine having all of the usual Ugandan exuberance. I felt very honoured to be the first visitor for the performance.

As mentioned before, the Mbale region has been chosen for a United Nations Development Partnership scheme for a climate change mitigation and adaptation programme. Both the UK government and Welsh Assembly government are now partners in the scheme and will add resources. For this programme to succeed it needs an effective partnership between the state sector, civil society and what are called non government organisations(NGOs) and the private or business sector. This would be demanding anywhere but in Uganda has particular challenges. However, given the clear and early impact of climate change on this part of sub-Saharan Africa, it is a challenge that must be met. Gumutindo, as a business which has sustainable agriculture and organic coffee growing as a central part of its business, is involved and keen to contribute to this programme as it unfolds over the next years.

As I have mentioned before Climate Change is not well understood here which given the miniscule CO2 contribution of the average person in Uganda and their lack of experience of a fossil fuel economy, is not surprising. What changes they are experiencing are attributed to local perceived alterations such as the disappearance of trees which of course does play a part in climate change. Later this week I will be presenting material and information to the Gumutindo field workers who are mostly trained agronomists, on the facts of climate change and its implications for this part of Africa and for coffee growing. An important step if people are to get to grips with and come up with solutions to what is happening on their own land. The timing, I am sure you will agree, could not be better.

Soon I will be packing up and heading back to Wales to enjoy that distinctive Welsh rain that I can testify, it is possible to miss and to enjoy Christmas with family and friends. There were Christmas items in the shops when I left in October so I am happy to have missed all that but am ready for some tinsel and carols now. There are few signs yet of the coming festivities -which is a very big family feast and celebration here- except for one unmissable one: there are more and more fat turkeys to be seen walking about, quite unaware of their fate. A few days ago I saw a truly amazing sight. On top of a matatu, the notorious taxi minibuses referred to before, sitting on the roof rack were five live turkeys all facing forward and looking as if they were going for spin.

November 2nd 2009

It is just over a year since I first came to Africa and now I am back for my third trip, working with Gumutindo coffee co-op based in their office and warehouse site in  Mbale. I am not the wide  eyed “new boy” any longer but it is still an extraordinary experience to leave Europe and arrive here. Whilst home I read Richard Dowden’s  “Africa, altered states,ordinary miracles” and he has caught this transition beautifully so I  will quote a section:
 “I have watched the sun set, shrunken and mean, over a cold, drab London street and stood outside a mud hut next morning on a Kenyan hillside and seen it rise in glory over the East African plains. Africa is close.
Few go there. Africa has a reputation: poverty, disease, war. But when outsiders do go they are often surprised by Africa’s welcome, entranced rather than frightened. Visitors are welcome and cared for in Africa. If you go you will find most Africans friendly, gentle and infinitely polite. You will frequently be humbled by African generosity….There is no click-on- have- a -nice day smile in Africa. Africans meet, greet and talk, look you in the eye and empathize, hold hands and embrace, share and accept from others without twitchy self-consciousness. All these things are as natural as music in Africa.”

The book is no tourist guide by the way but a clear-eyed look at Africa today that often makes uncomfortable reading.

I have been here for nearly three weeks now and after a long summer of spending time with family and friends, gardening, walking and jam and chutney making back in mid Wales, I am once again catching up with the coffee business. After a good season just past, in which twenty six containers of high quality Fairtrade and nearly all organic, Arabica coffee were sent to various parts of the world, now the storage sheds in Mbale are almost empty. The coffee is being harvested up on the mountain and as I write slowly starting to arrive as parchment here in town. Yesterday, Friday, was in fact  a sign of things to come with three separate lorries arriving with bags of coffee from the small producer co-ops.

We are now in the second and shorter rainy season and so far it has rained most afternoons and this has meant that farmers are finding it hard to get their coffee dry before it comes to Mbale. It is tested on arrival and if more than 13% moisture content, then it needs to be dried further before being accepted into the store. So for the last couple of days every available space outside in the Mbale compound is taken up with coffee drying on large canvas sheets. In the meantime a real “weather eye” needs to be kept on the mountain for signs of approaching rain so that it can be collected up and covered in time. Fortunately, most of it had managed to get dry when I left yesterday afternoon at the end of the week.

There is some anxiety about the crop this year and whether enough coffee can be collected from Gumutindo farmers for the orders already agreed. The main rainy season was disappointing and you have probably read of the drought in Kenya which shares Mt. Elgon with Uganda. This has affected the coffee crop and in other parts of the country has seriously affected basic food not just cash crops. There are some problems on the Ugandan side of the  mountain but they are not severe, I am told, and people have replanted food crops to try and make up the losses in the second rainy season which we are now in. 

On my first day in the office, I was given an opportunity to go up the mountain to attend the  Agm of one of the producer co-ops viz  Buginyanya where I had spent a week on the previous trip. Now, I know, normally nobody gets excited about the opportunity to attend an agm even one at nearly 7000ft up  but I had an idea that this would be different and so it turned out. I had hoped that I could sit quietly at the back and if need be nod off, still being tired from my journey back to Mbale, but alas, being a visitor, had to sit at the top table in full view. So with my eyes propped open for a meeting that was to last six hours, I watched the drama unfold.

At first the normal agm business. This took longer than it would in the Uk because, speeches and responses are an important part of the meeting ritual here and these can be long. I  know many people in Wales enjoy making speeches but everybody in Uganda seems to have a long speech in them whether farmer, politician or clergy. I should add here, that for various  reasons this was the first agm, that had been  held for three years and what began to emerge from the floor was that things had become a little too cosy for many of the farmers liking. To add to the drama, when the treasurer was giving her report, there was what can only be described as a cloudburst directly overhead and the racket from the rain on the tin roof of the meeting and storage hall was indescribable. Nothing could be heard or done until it passed in five minutes or so. However it was perceived, this certainly added to the drama. When it was time for the elections and canvassing, it became very animated with much gesticulation and many raised voices. For the election itself, it was outside to form an orderly line behind the candidate of your choice whilst last minute canvassing continued across the lines made. All this took nearly an hour and looked, for a time, as if it could degenerate into a mere slanging match. One of the farmers said to me over the noise of all this and clearly with pride “what do you think of our democracy?” –this is English. ( This meeting was being carried on, I should add , in the local language, Lugisu, with people translating for me as and when an opportunity arose.) Then the results and a new committee elected whilst keeping the original chair which seemed to me and others observing, a sound way forward. I was impressed; agms with feeling! There were just over a hundred farmers at the meeting  and  farmer’s dress code for an agm on Mt. Elgon : shirt and tie but black wellington boots  for footwear. This was the second time I had seen-the other was over a land dispute at another co-op nearby-what seemed like endless and ritualised  talking eventually coming to an agreement on the way forward. It is easily forgotten because of what we in the west hear of African politics, that there is a tradition of talking and consensus building here. It appears to me to be in good shape at least at the village level.

After six hours with just a bottle of warm coca-cola we, the visitors, were invited to a nearby hut for a meal. Matooke and boiled chicken never tasted better. I have noticed that many of these huts use old newspapers as a wall-paper and decoration and on this one there were pictures of the Pope, Queen Elizabeth and various Ugandan politicians. I have seen this collection before and a couple of times have seen pope and queen next to Saddam Hussein! I cannot even begin to frame what might be the right question to ask about that combination.

For my time here, I am  staying with a Ugandan family a few miles out of town and enjoying it very much. I have a small but comfortable room as part of an L shaped complex of houses with various related families living in them and surrounded by a wonderful Ugandan vegetable garden of about an acre. I have not worked out all of the relationships yet but am making progress. There are chickens everywhere which I like but the racket from the cockerels crowing just outside my bedroom window at 4am is not easy to get used to.

Finally: the taxi or matatu drivers are legendary in Uganda for their awful driving but they provide “public transport” and will go anywhere. I should add that the taxis are here minibuses, always Japanese (Hiace) and nearly always white, spattered with mud, with a broken blue stripe on the side. Many sport their football teams( Uk premier league - Man U. Chelsea,Arsenal  and Liverpool the most popular) but they also often express on the back window some odd religious sentiments. One has “God  is also a passenger” and another ,the  enigmatic “May God forgive us” . I do keep wondering if that refers to the driving or something else.

John

Easter 2009

The rains have finally come and at times in a very dramatic way as thunder clouds come tumbling down off the mountain. Safely inside, they are brilliant entertainment better than the widest screen tv but they are dangerous with constant lightning, strong winds and a deluge of water. Already there are stories of some people in nearby villages losing their houses as their roofs are taken off and the water then wrecks the mud walls. But mostly people are delighted that the unusually long dry season is over. From first light until dark, between storms, people are out in their plots sowing the seeds for this season's vegetable harvest. This is not an added extra or an attempt to "grow their own" but a matter of their families livelihood.

All the work on the soil is done with hoes-as seen in so many pictures of Africa-and I was surpised to see that this simple implement, can be used to turn the earth, then weed it-couch is a major problem here- and most surpisingly of all, then be used to create a fine seed bed. Beans and maize are the first things to be planted and there are already a few gardens where I can see the plants a couple of inches high. All this work is done mainly by women though I have seen some men and sometimes whole families in the gardens. Certainly many young children are involved. I have not seen a single cultivator or any of the implements we use. I watched one woman planting the other day and this has clearly been learned over generations. She had a pot on her head with bean seeds in it. She walked along and with her foot made a small indentation and then dropped a seed in and covered it again with her foot and all of this done without any bending at all and the pot safely balanced on her head. I doubt if this would work on our Welsh clays but in this rich light soil, no problem and lovely to watch.

I have recently spent five days up on the mountain staying in the home of a coffee farmer Oliva Kishero and her husband Joseph. (I understand that Oliva recently featured on the BBC programme "The One Show" about Gumutindo coffee.) The village, Buginyanya, is just over 6000ft and as I have said before, it is extraordinary what grows at that height here: bananas, avocados, mangoes as well as arabica coffee and all the usual vegetables including onions and garlic. When I tell them that few trees of any kind grow above 1500ft in our country, they find that hard to believe.

I talked with members of the co-op up there and visited various farmers on their small farms or shambas. I talked with them about how they understood the role of the co-op, about Fairtrade and organic cultivation of their coffee. I told them of the many Fairtade groups in Wales and how volunteers work hard to promote Fairtrade including their coffee. I was attempting to get some idea of what steps might help farmers to understand better their role within Gumutindo. One day we walked along steep narrow paths to another village to visit a neighbouring co-op to do the same. Finally, I hired motorbikes for myself and Oliva to visit one of the newest co-ops to talk to them about what support they are looking for in their recruitment of new farmers. Whilst at this last village, Kikuyu, our motorbike drivers became animated as they spotted a storm approaching and hurried us along to make the trip back. It was a hair-raising ride back along mountain tracks where I held on for dear life feeling unable to slow them down as I could see the storm getting closer and closer. We made it to within about a hundred yards of our destination up a steep track before the storm struck. We had to get off and dash home in the downpour as the track was now as slick as an ice rink.

Sharing the life of an ordinary farmer-even for a short time- here was a great experience. The people in the villages are if anything even warmer than in the town and the children as usual are fascinated at having a mzungu-white man-in their village.

The domestic cooking,where I was staying, is done on an open fire in a covered shed-it can be smokey-but sitting around the fire waiting for supper, with fireflies dancing about outside and the hens all crouched about the cooking area, all lit by the fire and a small wick lamp is a quite special experience that I will treasure. However, I have to say I was pleased to get back at the end of the week, tired and muddy, to a shower and the comparative "home comforts" of my room here in town.

Two weeks ago in Mbale, we were visited by a United Nations Climate Change delegation accompanied by a Welsh group including Jon Townley of the Welsh Assembly Government, Wales for Africa scheme which has been supporting my own work here. This is an important topic and I can only give the briefest details here but we know that sub Saharan Africa and the Mount Elgon area in particular are fragile areas in which even a modest increase in temperature-now thought to be unavoidable-could have serious consequences for hundreds of thousands of livelihoods. Because of the partnership work which has already been done in Mbale region, this area has been chosen to pilot climate change amelioration work. What this means in practice is yet to be decided though reforestation seems to be an agreed priority. During the day's visit which started with a large meeting in the morning here in town of all the interested parties, a visit was made, in the afternoon, to one of the nearer Gumutindo co-ops to talk directly with farmers about changes they were observing and their own ideas on meeting these challenges. I must say that I was impressed with the way in which the well dressed and be-suited members of the delegation were able to sit in a basic shed-the coffee store with an unusual number of insects buzzing about-and both explain and listen to what the farmers had to say.

Climate change, as we understand it, is not well understood here but farmers are increasingly concerned about the fact that something is changing and patterns they have been used to for generations are altering outside of the normal. Of course, we know that farmers will always complain about the weather and it is important to sift this out. Whilst up in the mountain and before the delegation arrived ,I had collected stories from around and at different altitudes that all point to something quite distinctive happening. There are more landslides; this made worse by heavier rains,de-forestation and population pressures;. there are stronger winds and streams drying up that nobody can remember ever going dry and all agree on increased temperatures. The most common story of all is that the ability to know when the rains will come and therefore when to plant-passed down through the generations- for which there were a host of signs, such as insects and birds is no longer working. There was a sense of urgency in the work proposed by the UN team but also a general realisation that more solid data is needed to help target this work. As they say, this one will run and run.

In the meantime work goes on at the Mbale site of Gumutindo and containers are leaving regularly now with their cargo of coffee beans for Mombasa and the world. Up on the mountain the rain means that the coffee trees will soon be flowering and with good fortune, next season's crop will be on its way. The cycles are as real here as they are in northern climes but as I am learning to appreciate, just different and the sense of re-birth is as important here as there.

Finally, some common greetings in Uganda: "How was your night?" usually asked in response to a "good morning". "How is your life?" (a long reply is not expected). "Well prayed", said on meeting people after church and "Shall we go?" not really a greeting but more a rather gentle sales pitch by boda-boda bicycle drivers.

John
Mbale

Easter Sunday 2009
Expenses for the work with Gumutindo Coffee Cooperative Enterprise Ltd are funded under the Wales for Africa Grant Scheme of the Welsh Assembly Government

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Mbale
March 2009

I left Mbale for Wales just days before Christmas and returned as the first daffodils were coming out there at the beginning of March.
On the Saturday, two days before I left, I was working alongside the Newtown Fairtrade group handing out cups of coffee and biscuits to passers by as part of Fairtrade Fortnight and the following Wednesday, I was back with Gumutindo Coffee in Mbale. I do feel very fortunate to be able to do this work and discover new challenges in retirement.
I arrived in a very dusty and bone dry part of Africa and with none of the green freshness and moderate heat that had greeted me when I first arrived in October last year. It is, hopefully, near the end of the dry season which started in late November. I have found it difficult to sleep at night as there is no cooling rain and the air quality is poor on many days when there is no breeze. This is not caused by the things that normally cause it in the West but by small smouldering fires everywhere burning garden rubbish and later in the day by the many, many cooking fires. This with the dust thrown up on the roads makes quite a mix. I have tried to find out why there is not more composting rather than burning here and I am told it is just the way things are done. I have also been told that it helps to keep down pests and given that there are no frosts that make some sense. Anyway, they tell me the rain will come "soon"- which is left quite indefinite. We did have a good but short storm last evening when it rained for a good half hour and the ridge beyond where I am staying was lit up every few minutes by flashes of lightning. Today the ground is as hard and dry as ever. I am looking forward to regular rain like I never thought I would.

Things at the Gumutindo compound in Mbale, where I am based, have moved along since I returned home. Ten containers have now been despatched to various parts of the world to Fairtrade customers(The orders for the year are for 25 containers and only two had gone when I left in December). All the coffee for the season has now been harvested and nearly all of it sent down from the Producer Co-ops in the mountains to the depot here. The main task now is sorting and as those of you who have read early journals know, this is all done entirely by hand either on the ground outside,under the trees in the compound for shade, or on three conveyor belts in one of the sheds. It is done by casual workers, all women, who have done this work for a number of years and for whom this is an important part of their seasonal income After that, the beans are bagged up in hessian sacks according to grade and stacked ready for loading on to the container. A crucial stage here is that each customer is sent samples of the coffee ordered and it is only after these samples are tasted and approved that the order is prepared for despatch. Although a lot of the work here in the compound is manual there is again the striking contrast between the old way of doing things and the new that I have referred to before; for instance on Saturday last I attended a workshop in which a very sophisticated spreadsheet was presented to staff which will track all the contracts for selling coffee as they move through the different stages right up until they leave the port of Mombasa.

I am continuing my work on various staff issues and training and will be spending three weeks of my time here up in the mountains visiting and supporting the smaller producer co-ops of which there are ten scattered around the Mt Elgon area.

My impressions are now not "first" but I am again struck by the hospitality and natural graciousness of people here and by how big smiles are readily bestowed. Today, Sunday, I was invited to visit the home of my motorbike driver Akimu and met his wife and two young children plus other members of an extended family for whom he has responsibility at the age of 27-his father has recently died. He had one small room for his immediate family and had "borrowed" a larger room for my visit because his had no furniture other than a bed in it. They entertained me in very friendly and relaxed way and said how my visit had made them happy. A delicious meal of rice, sweet potato and a meat sauce was cooked on a tiny little stove fuelled by charcoal, outside. The visit was helped by the fact that his half brother was a Liverpool supporter, that they had the day before beaten Manchester United 4-1 and that Akimu's little daughter immediately took to a bouncy ball that I had brought as a present. Interestingly too, they are a mixed household in terms of religion as Akimu is a Moslem and other members of the family are Christian. They said they had lots of feasts to celebrate together!

Finally a story that may challenge a few stereotypes of Africa. Pupils of a secondary school in Arua district which is in north-western Uganda- this from a national newspaper of 6th March- marched their headmaster 10kms all the way to the local education offices and demanded that he be replaced. They said he had a poor working relationship with teachers and had failed to manage the academic matters of the school. I have not heard of the outcome.

John Harrington
15th March 2009

Expenses for the work with Gumutindo Coffee Cooperative Enterprise Ltd are funded under the Wales for Africa Grant Scheme of the Welsh Assembly Government