Uganda Lake Walk

We went on a village walk today which took us to a lake. 

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First we started through the tea plantations.

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These are the flowers of a tea tree.

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They would grow into tall trees but to make them harvestable they are kept short. They only pick the top 2.5 leaves, and they can do this every week or so depending on the amount of rain.

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Many women carry heavy loads on their head in Africa.

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Along the walk there were a good number of dragonflies which help to keep the mosquitos down.

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There are all different kinds, more than we have pictures of as most of the time they are in the air.

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There were many butterflies fluttering about.

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As well as spiders waiting for something to flutter into their webs for lunch.

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And whatever this was.

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Down by the lake were many birds taking a break from fishing.

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The views were amazing, Uganda is very green with all the tea and banana plantations.

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The village kids were collecting water to take up the hill.

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We had to cross a makeshift bridge to head towards the village. No one fell in.

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Most of the homes are just simple mud and thatch.

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This family was preparing fish for drying.

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Lots and lots of fish.

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It took him about 20 seconds per fish to scale and gut.

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These were the ones waiting.

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It was also the harvest season so the corn was being dried out.

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Some bananas were also harvested. They pick them green here too and let them ripen. They are a little smaller than the ones we get in the grocery store.

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The family also had goats with a couple of babies.

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This house was reinforced by more sticks to allow it to be bigger. It also had a steel roof which doesn’t require the constant upkeep like thatch.

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Their kitchen is simple with a small fireplace and food for cooking.

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Outside were more insects like wasps.

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They also grow peanuts. See all the peanuts?

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Of course not because they are underground. They dig them up then leave them out to dry before collecting so they don’t weigh so much.

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There were more butterflies around too.

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There were some really large flies that would bother us, but not nearly as bad as the ones in Australia.

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If only more birds would be around then perhaps there would have been fewer flies.

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Although with more birds we would have likely seen fewer of the big insects like these grasshoppers.

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