Uganda is coffee and advocacy

MANILA, Philippines - If you blindfolded yourself as soon as you land at the airport, and then open your eyes an hour or so after, you could swear you were in Cavite. There are bananas in the market, corn and pineapples, and papayas, too. Then you realize it is a bit cooler than Cavite. You are at 1,300 meters above sea level and there is a slight breeze as you drive along the beautiful highways.

Then as you look around, people speak English with quite a heavy accent. Welcome to Uganda. Easily the most populous country in East Africa, Uganda is the biggest exporter of organic coffee to Europe. However, its farmers still earn a measly 60 US cents per kilo of coffee that they bring to the consolidators.

They have organic coffee by default because they cannot afford fertilizers and agrochemicals, just  like our farmers in far away Sulu.

We drove from the capital Kampala to Myanzi, north of the city, where Emmanuel Tumwizire of the Ugandan Coffee Development Authority would meet us. Two farmers in an open truck – most if not all cars and vans in Uganda are second hand vehicles from Japan – meet us and we went inside what would be 15 acres of coffee farms, owned by Muwonge, 45, and his wife Nabulime Mulu.

Muwonge picks every coffee fruit or cherry that sometimes naturally falls off the branches. Each fruit, each “cherry” contributes to the weight of the coffee he will soon pulp and sell to the traders. As we wend our way around his seedling plots, his pigpens and his vermicompost niches, a photographer (who I thought was with the Ugandan Coffee office) was documenting our poses and candid shots. When I later asked if these were official photos, Emmanuel said that Muwonge got the village photographer to document our visit. It must have been a first for this Ugandan coffee farmer. For two “white” Chinese-looking ladies to visit a farm over 150 kilometers from the nation’s capital,  Muwonge must have figured this visit must indeed be special.

To cap the two-hour walk around the farm, Muwonge asked if we could pose with the rest of the pickers, this being coffee harvest season. As it was almost lunch, he also served us a bunch of ripe bananas to calm our hungry stomachs. Then he sent word, or probably made a secret whistle that could only be heard by the pickers – and soon about 20 women and children came out from the bushes to pose with us for a family photo. What do you know – all the coffee pickers were women. Headed by Muwonge’s wife,  these women go from tree to tree, over a period of maybe three to four weeks, picking only the ripest coffee fruits.

Thinking of our lunch appointment in Kampala’s first women-owned and woman-operated coffee shop called CAFÉ PAP, we hurriedly said our goodbyes to Muwonge and his brood. Until the next opportunity to visit and probably exchange notes on organic coffee farming.

The drive back to Kampala was uneventful save for a souvenir shot at a tea plantation. But as soon as you reach Kampala city limits, traffic slows and a 2-kilometer stretch could take an hour. Daniel, our ever efficient guide from the Uganda Export Promotion Board, stepped off the car and took a motorbike called “bodo-bodo” (private motorcycles take fares to anywhere for an agreed price) to pick up the rest of our party… yes, but this time on foot, from our hotel to the café.

What a welcome surprise this CAFÉ PAP was. First of all, hot lunches of local tilapia (St. Peter’s fish) from the source of the Nile river, and organic chicken dishes were served for lunch. Next, each coffee drink (except for my boring straight Americano) which had milk in it like a latte carried a message addressed to the drinker. Each one of our international lunch group had a different message – from “hello handsome” to “how are you gorgeous?” – which led everyone to smile and laugh at the different designs, and soon each had a photo of each other’s drink quickly posted on Instagram or Facebook.

The lady owner is Jolly, who also happens to be the wife of the president of the Ugandan Coffee Development Authority. What a charming lady Jolly is. She entertained all our questions about Ugandan coffee and how she has operated probably the best café serving real Ugandan coffee from Lake Elgon and its environs.

The other coffee place I tried was Dorman’s which I later learned is a Kenyan coffee chain. Good coffee, too, from Ugandan Bugasu to Kenyan AA.  Her café has free wifi, a lot of choices of desserts, café concoctions and real straight black coffee.

I am glad Ros Juan and I took this trip to the origins of organic African coffee. Ros, who operates her own café in Salcedo Village, Makati could relate to Jolly’s challenges in running a café. And we both could well relate to Muwonge’s and his wife’s farm management during harvest, having joined our farmhands in harvesting barako cherries in our little farm in Cavite.

So many similarities between Cavite and Uganda. Women in coffee, organic coffee. Bananas, pineapple and papaya. It’s worth the long trip via Dubai, and on to Kampala to see what bounty the other side of the world shares with us.

EQUATOR

The only other tourist must see is the Equator landmark. The equator cuts across some towns in a few areas around the world from Ecuador to Indonesia, Gabon and in Uganda, near Masaka town.

The must see is how water goes whirling clockwise down the tubes in the northern hemisphere, in the opposite way (counterclockwise) down south and on the Equator, straight down. Have you ever thought of that?

And the added attraction on the equator? Body weight is reduced by three percent while you are on the equator. So I can honestly claim I lost a little weight – for a few days at least.