green acres

the following is what i was going to write when i thought the photo would attach...will get it worked out soon... this photo is of bala camp, the one we visited the other day. i wanted to include this photo because there's a goat in it. and it shows the huts these folks live in. there are hundreds of them in the camps (huts). lots of goats too though... one thing that's definitely frustrating as we drive all over this country which is as green and fertile as i've ever seen - is that people are hungry despite the productive land. if the land were only planted with crops, it could feed these people no problem. but they're jammed up in these camps and can't spread out enough to work the farms for fear of being attacked. i've heard it said that uganda, if managed properly, could feed the whole of africa. i believe it too. something in me wishes some people could come over from other countries and show them how to plant massive fields of corn, squash, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, etc. but maybe that wouldn't help. i'm sure someone has tried. plus, the culture here doesn't lend itself to that. people do enough to get by, that's all. they think, why spend all this time working when i could be hanging out with my friends or eating or whatever?? did americans ever think that way? i actually got to go to the market and eat vegetables this weekend. we have vegetables pretty often, but in a thing i like to call onion salad - like two tomatoes and five onions all cut up...it'll wake you up...i'm still trying to figure out our cook. but i had carrots and peppers and even made mashed potatoes. i miss vegetables, i feel like my world is out of balance. but it's better now. someone out there, please eat lots of spinach because there is none here! i've thought about picking random weeds along the roadside and eating them but God only knows what i'd come down with as a result. we have to wash our vegetables here because they fertilize with human waste. yum!!