Leather Tanning.  The Karamojong have many traditional leather items that they make, including clothing, storage containers, bedding, ornaments, weapons, and food containers. they have a challenge in that the leather deteriorates rapidly and can have an offensive smell. I have been working with some of the elderly ladies to develop improved, sustainable, non-toxic techniques to tan and soften leather, making it more durable and improving the quality. What FUN this has been, working with the women and training others to create value addition to their leather products.

Aquaponics. It's a combination of Aquaculture (fish farming) and Hydroponics (vegetable farming in nutrient rich water). The two systems work symbiotically to feed each other and produce up to 100 fish and 1000 head of cabbage or kale in a nine month period! Waffle is busy designing and testing and training to get it right. Looking forward to fried fish and greens!

Many years ago, in the USA, some universities studied the idea of combining Aquaculture and Hydroponics.  Aquaculture is the program for raising fish in an artificially controlled environment using filter, feeding and disease control.  Hydroponics is the program where you raise plants by providing the nutrients in a medium, usually with no soil. 

Aquaponics the adventure is raising fish in a tank, feeding them, and using their urine to feed nitrosomas bacteria. The bacteria change the urine into nitrites and as the process goes, this is turned back to the plants in the grow beds of media.  The plants in turn clean the water for the fish.  The best fish discovered so far is the Nile Tilapia, which just happen to come from….well… here at the start of the Nile, Lake Victoria, Uganda.  The Chinese took the idea from the universities and turned it into a multibillion dollar industry raising plants and fish.  It has been started in Kampala and is doing well in the southern part of the country, so we want to try it with our out-of-work graduates here in the north. Here is one of Waffle's fish tanks:

Aquaponics uses 95% less water, than watering plants in soil to produce the same amount of food. The water is recycled and purified by the plants.  The input is food for the fish: Duck Poo, local Legumes, Moringa, dried Lilly Pads and a bug zapper (above the tank), the fish are feed to obtain their waste products.  The average growth rate is accelerated because the plants do not need a tap root.  The disease born problems that come with soil are limited. With all of this, some setups are producing 1000 cabbages every 28 days, with the fish maturing at the end of 8 months. Our growing season here is limited, and vegetable produce is in short supply. This could put quality vegetables on the table and sales would put the family’s needs, such as, medical expenses, clothes, food, and school fees within reach. We need to source some good fish and get a consistant feed supply before we begin. This will be a great adventure!

October 2020 Update: we got another tank and are preparing to lay down heavy duty tarpolines for the stones to be placed for the spinach to grow. We have a few catfish in the tank, and the seem to be surviving!

Cane Rats. Yes, Cane rats can be tasty! 

 Ask the visitors from Suburban Christian Church in Corvallis. After a week of camping in the bush, doing construction and hard labor, they had a meal of cane rat with us, and really enjoyed it! One even said, "It's better than chicken!" Currently, there are hunters who hunt them and sell them in the villages, but we would like to get some live babies, and raise them in captivity. There are several advantages to raising cane rats: 1. They can be an excellent source of food for the people. 2. They can eat very fibrous materials that other animals do not eat, therefore they are not expensive to feed. 3. They would not compete with people for food  (Chickens and livestock often require cereal grains). 

Waffle has been trying for years to get some live cane rats. Villagers have brought him many pack rats, some Norway rats, and we got a few door mice, but no cane rats yet. They are quite hard to catch! We heard there are some in Northern Uganda, near Kidepo, so we may need to get up there to find some breeding stock!

Guinea Fowl. Several species of Guinea fowl live in  East Africa. One species, the Helmeted Guinea Fowl, has been domesticated. We got a few from some friends, and then found a few in the bush from the wild race of helmeted guinea fowl. So, we are trying to breed them now to see if they can cross. They get along well, except for the males can fight. They are a good source for both eggs and meat, and are also good at alarming when something unusual is happening!