Kelsey: How-to Friday! How to make sugar.

When I live in America I pay very little attention to where my food comes from. I mean I love the farmers market, if given the choice I shop local produce. But everything that comes in a package could come from Indonesia for all I know. I watched the movie Food Inc (recommend it) about a year ago and was very disturbed about many things in the American food system. One of them being how much of the packaged food I eat is just corn made into different looking and tasting things, all because corn is cheap and plentiful because corn is subsidized. Anyways point being that I never knew really where my sugar was coming from until I lived in Uganda.

I dont exactly know the process of turning sugar cane into sugar. It was explained to me but I was only half listening. I also took a bunch of pictures but they all pretty much look like this...

And this.

Lots of pretty pretty machines. But more importantly this is where it starts...

Sugar cane

This picture was taken at the annual agricultural show held in Jinja. Its a big deal, the president comes. The show lasts for one week and tons of plant life are on display. It reminds me of the flower show in Chicago. Its kind of bizarre to do all this planting and landscaping for a one weeks show. 

Dorcus disappearing into some sugar cane

We grow sugar cane in our backyard. Dorcus loves this plant like it is her own child. I kind of get it. I mean you give it some love and water and it gives you some yummy sugar. 

This is way more fun when it is done with a machete

Dorcus cuts off a piece of sugar cane about once a week. I believe she trades it at school like we used to trade pogs. Remember pogs? I guess she could just be bringing it as a snack but sometimes she brings home sugar cane when she did not go with any... Something is up.

Our own personal jungle

Score!

Sugar cane can be eaten right from the ground. Just cut it, peel it and eat it. It is a three step process and totally machine free. 

This piece is waiting for me to eat it.

Easiest to just peel it with your teeth. 

It tastes vaguely fruity. It is sort of tropical. I thought it would taste more like straight sugar. 

Alisha likes it. But she also eats paper and soap so her opinion might not hold a lot of weight.

And voila you can now make sugar. Basically.

How-to Friday: How to bucket bathe

When I first came to uganda we were taught certain things in order to be able to survive in our host homes. We had to learn to cook, to clean (mopping here is very different), to wash our clothes, to pee in a squatty (I will never forget Margaret demonstrating this for our class!) and how to bathe ourselves. I am pretty sure it was my teacher Gwyn who got up in front of our class and demonstrated how to bathe without running water, a luxury that few people have here. So I grabbed a couple of my sisters and had them demonstrate how to take a proper bucket bath.

Our tap

Gladys getting water

The bucket is an essential ingredient of a bucket bath. If you are lucky you will have a tap nearby (like we do!) otherwise you have to carry your water from a well, which is kind of a bummer. There are some days in America when I seriously can not get up the motivation to walk into the shower and turn the knob. I guess here it helps that there is serious cultural expectation to bathe frequently. Does that exist in America and I just choose to ignore it?

Getting good and dirty before the bath

Normally swimsuits are not worn for this.
She thought I was totally crazy for making her
wear one.

Dorkus and Gladys bathe in pairs. Bathing with friends is always more fun!

Step One: Splash water on your friend. Or if bathing alone splash water on yourself.

Step two: Soap up.

Scrubby scrub

I am pretty sure she was shivering by this point. I am not sure why
this activity happens outdoors. 

Scrub the toes. I always forget this part!

Step three: Add more water and keep scrubbing.

Step four: Rinse and if needed repeat. Having someone pour water on you is basically the same thing as a shower. I am pretty sure I would be fine with not having running water for years.

Reliable electricity is another thing though... That story still to come.