VISITS WITH MARGARET MCANDREWS

INTERNATIONAL FARM YOUTH EXCHANGE FROM MINNESOTA TO UGANDA
Newsletter # 1

Keboga, Uganda
September 1970

Greetings from Uganda!
As the children of my first host family play under the banana trees which shade us; I can hear faint strains of a transistor radio wailing; I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane” while the ever present rumble of someone’s restless drums sound in the djstant.  During my stay here in Uganda, I hope to share some of the many things I am learning with you through my newsletters.

One of the first things, a visitor in a new country notices is the change in food, for man; regardless of his color or place of birth; loves to eat!  The people of Uganda are certainly no exception even though they are poor.  Because nearly all of rural population are engaged in agriculture; the food that is eaten by the family has also been sowed, tended and harvested by them.  The mainstay of the diet is the banana or matuka as it is known here.  There are two main types—a sweet banana similar to those that we purchase in the supermarket and a large green cooking banana which is of more dietary importance here.

Matuka is prepared and eaten at every meal of the day.  It may be accompanied by a ground nut or meat soup.  I helped prepare lunch today by going to the kitchen (a separate building out behind my family’s home) and settling down on a gunny sack in one corner.  I carefully covered my lap with broad banana leaves to protect my dress from the gummy tar-like resin that the banana emits when cut. My host mother handed me a large well-worn knife and a bunch of bananas cut earl­ier in the morning weighing at least forty pounds.  She had a bunch of similar size and together we proceeded to cut and peel lunch for the family.  We peeled for an hour or so while communicating only by gestures, grins and laughing at the antics of several younger brothers and sisters playing nearby.

When we completed our task we bound the matuka in banana leaves and tied it up in the tough fibers of the stems. This huge bundle was then put over a large tub of water on a smoky fire to steam. Lunch was nearly ready! After an hour and a half of cooking the leaves were removed and after mashing the bananas with our hands, the matuka was ready to serve.

All food is eaten with the fingers of the right hand  which is really both pract­ical and sanitary because the hands are thoroughly washed both before and after each meal.

The warm afternoon sun is now fading and the cool evening breeze is rising, bringing the fragrance of hundreds of flowers which grow everywhere and the voice of my host sister calling me for afternoon tea.

Your IFYE in Uganda,

Margaret McAndrews

c/o Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Cooperatives

P. O. Box 102Dept T

Entebbe, Uganda