Just Coffee Cooperative

Boda Bodas, Uganda’s famed motorcycle taxis, bicycles, and people meander the streets in Mbale town, setting out on their morning tasks. Signs of development organizations with nice
vehicles clearly displaying their organizations’ logos are present throughout this city of nearly 100,000 residents that lies just across the border from Kenya. I observe advertisements for air time, muslim mosques, Indian restaurants, informal economies, the busy coming and going of people. We take the rough, eroded road that leads north to Sudan past meandering cows and goats, plantains set for sale in the marketplace, and women and children swinging their hoes in small plots of land. The city quickly fades to country, and the pace slows down.Homes of adobe huts and corrugated tin lying atop brick walls become more and more spaced apart. Here the dirt that paves the mountain roads carries a red tint, a subtle reminder that I’m across the ocean this time. We climb up with the potholes, which keep us from cruising at a faster pace. The road seems to get worse and the views substantially better. It is day two and we’re heading out for another Gumutindo society. Today we will be meeting with Jennipher and her cooperative in the Nusufwa society.

We’re really far out here I think to myself, and my mind wanders back to the number of hours it’s taken to get here, and it takes me a minute to calculate it all. We decide to stop to take a picture at a curve in the road, each side carved out of a red-black tinted rock wall decorated with greenery and waterfalls. Conveniently, the Land Cruiser decided to take a break too as we’re gawking at the geology of the land. The rough road left it overheated, causing an extra pit stop for us.  Lydia says its “the worst thing that has ever happened” to her while we calmly wait it out on the side of the road, greeting barefoot farmers passing by. The wee little nearby waterfall serves as a coolant, saving our ride and before long we were on our way. You can’t expect to travel to coffee country without having at least one vehicle malfunction...