July 20th, I woke up early and snapped photos of the fire to boil water and insects gathering breakfast.  We then went to the weekly cattle dip (flea and tick bath) before heading out to visit the homesteads of widows that Kony (one of CLA's old boys) has been working with to help them become self-sufficient.  Village life is an everyday struggle for water, food, and preparing the extra food for sale at the local trade center (like a farmer's market).  We picked coffee for Aunt Cathy (who wanted to try sun-drying coffee herself) and watched as families prepared cassava, maize, beans and coffee for sale.  The last group of widows were basket weavers who were trying to start a chicken coop to be able to sell eggs.  

We returned to the ranch to go get water how everyone gets water-pumping into a 5 gallon jerry can.  Getting water, gathering firewood and food is usually the job of the kids in a homestead.  Chris caused quite a stir since nobody had ever seen a muzungu carry a jerry can, let alone on his head!

We had dinner of posho and beans at CLA boys school where Chris entertained with Bob Marley songs on the guitar while I took photos in the near pitch dark dining hall.  We had so much fun and so many new experiences at the ranch, the simple and quite lifestyle was a nice break from busy Kampala.  The next morning we left bright and early to head off on safari!   xoxo, emily