it is a countdown

only 3 weeks left in Uganda and lots to do - the expression crazy busy springs to mind! Nik arrives tomorrow for 10 days escorting a potential donor for SPW to Uganda. Will be great to see him and have him around for a while.

Things have been going well here. I have started work with a new co-operative - Twekembe Co-op in Bukanga. It has 450 members and is a well-established farmers co-op. They have a youth group of 60 members and it is with them that I am working. I have only been a couple of times but they are keen to work with us and share their experiences. The area where we met them is called Bukanga and it is much further than the other places we have been. It is about an hour of the main road down a very rough road that becomes impossible when it rains - we are constantly having to watch out of the window and work out if it is going to rain! There is one young farmer, David, who is only 19 but supporting his family through farming and I am looking forward to interviewing him and finding out his story. Often I have found that whilst the groups are called youth groups, the young people are often older youth, 25 - 30 and it will therefore be interesting ti hear how David is managing. The group is majority male like with Kigayaza, we have only had 1 girl attend in a group of 20 men. The parents of the girls and women are reluctant to let them join the co-op as they see it simply as a group of men and they fear that their daughters may start getting into relationships and get pregnant. Girls in the rural areas also tend to marry and have children quite young, often before 18 and they are then seen as adults by the community and themselves to some extent and would therefore not see the need to be part of a youth group. That said, there are are some female members but as the men attending explained they are often too busy at home with their chores to attend the meetings- like cooking lunch for the men! Whilst things can be tough for these farmers, women and girls have it harder and are more disadvantaged - in terms of access to schooling, their ability to make decisions for themselves and the priority they are given in the household. This is not always the case and is different in urban areas but equality of males and females is still an issue in many rural areas.

I attended an Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Kigayaza Youth Association last weekend. I begrudgingly got up early on a Sunday and drove the hour out to Kangulimira but I am so pleased I did. Their AGM was a very exciting event, well attended by members and local leaders. What impressed me was how democratic it was. The AGM is the time when they elect a new Executive Board for the co-op. This is done by nominating members for positions, who then give a short campaign speech, they are then asked to leave the room and a vote is then taken. It was great to see the eager participation of all the members in this process and how well it was organised. This against a backdrop in Uganda of discussions on the upcoming elections in Uganda and whether they will be fair and free. And to see such an event was inspiring - people enjoying a democratic process and fully executing their role in it. To read more about Kigayaza Youth Association and the AGM have a look at the youth co-op website which I have been writing pieces for - http://www.youngco-operatives.coop/Resources/International-Links/Kigayaza-Youth-Association.

I also had a good trip yesterday to Buwenge to JoyFod SACCO, they wanted to show me the demonstration garden that they are supporting. They have selected a farmer, Fred, to set up his garden in such a way that it becomes a demonstration garden of good practise that other farmers can visit. He is growing a range of of things - bananas, rice and also has a cow. He is demonstrating some new farming techniques such as zero grazing - where the cow lives in a small pen 24/7 and is fed there too. This allows the farmer to collect all the manure much more efficiently than trying to collect the manure from a cow that can wander around everywhere which is the norm. Fred is also using the manure to make compost - mixing it with leaves etc and leaving it for some time to then create a more effective compost - normally farmers just spread the manure. JoyFod whose core business is savings and credit believe that they have to help local people improve their farming, helping them more beyond simple farming for their own needs to a farming situation where they can make some extra cash and then be in a position to uses the services of JoyFod - able to save some money and take a loan to expand a business.

I have also been making some trips to Kampala to conduct interviews. As part of my research I am conducting research at a National level to try and understand the broader context that youth co-ops operate in - what are the bigger issues and discussions on co-ops. This has involved me doing interviews with Uganda Co-operative Alliance, the government department for co-ops and also interested donors, such as the Canadians and DFID. It is really enlightening to do these interviews, and really helps me understand some of the issues that are being faced by the co-ops in the village. It is also nice for me to do research in English as it really allows me to dig deeply and effectively on the issues I am interested in. I will be going again tomorrow, a nice 7am start to get through the traffic in Kampala and to my meeting at 10am and then leaving the city at 4am gets me back by 7pm. It is under 100 kms away!

With only 3 weeks to go we (me and my 2 research assistants) are mad busy with field trips nearly everyday. I have about 2 trips left to Buwenge and to Kigayaza and it is now a case of deciding what are the priority activities are that I want to do with them. This is difficult as now that I am engaged with the different groups and trying to understand their situations I have found there are layers and layers of detail to the situations that could keep me here for the next 3 months never mind weeks! But as we are always told at Uni a PhD is a 'bounded' piece of work and you have to stop with collecting the data and start to try and make sense of what you have and start to work out how to say something useful! Plus think I need to get back home to Nik, the garden and walking Mosi! (Big thank you to Andy and Sarah for helpng nik manage Mosi in my absence and putting up with her deer chasing antics!) All the best to you all an looking forward to seeing you all soon.