Stories from the Field: Early June

Josephine helps a refugee participant load firewood on her head, before turning back to Imvepi

Dear All,

I hope that you have been well! This weekend finds me in Arua where I came to (unsuccessfully) repair my phone screen. On Wednesday I set my phone on a windowsill to catch some cellular network and a strong wind blew the phone to the ground, shattering the screen. This has made data collection challenging, but not impossible. Unfortunately the iPhone repair person in Arua is missing some small screws needed to finish the repair job, but will complete the repair next weekend. Not a bad excuse to enjoy some cooler temperatures and amenities in town.

This week I will share a few highlights from our fieldwork in the first weeks of June:

Grewia mollis fruits ripen

One joy has been the ripening of Grewia mollis fruits. G. mollis is a multifunctional edible, medicinal, and fiber species which we regularly find in the bush, especially on the host side. The fruits are very small with a large pit, and have a banana-like flavor that give us a boost of sweetness during a long day in the field. As we follow hosts along for firewood collection, Robilert and I are constantly scanning the environment looking for fruit-laden G. mollis trees, known as onju in Lugbara.

Robilert (left) picks onju berries, which are yellow when ripened (right)

Ediofe 3

On the host side, we are currently collecting data in the village of Ediofe, (we are calling it Ediofe 3 since it is actually the third village named "Ediofe" we have encountered!) Though Ediofe 3 is part of the same sub-county as Imvepi, it is located at a bit of a distance outside the settlement boundaries which contributes to a sense of rurality and peacefulness. Robilert and I agreed that the temperature even feels cooler once we turn off the main road into Ediofe 3, possibly due to increased tree cover outside of Imvepi.

A highlight from Ediofe 3 is working with a participant I will call "Morris." The first time we encountered Morris, he was walking along the road while braiding sisal fibers into rope. We learned in our subsequent interview that his entire livelihood is centered around producing sisal rope, and sure enough we have always found him engaged in rope-making when we arrive to his compound.

Morris (at right) braiding rope from the split and separated fibers of sisal leaves (left)

Our walk with Morris to collect firewood was fascinating. In just a half-mile stretch, Morris identified 20 different species used for fiber, food, and/or medicine. These included:

• A tree known as werego that has edible tubers which can be munched on during long periods of grazing cattle in the bush.

• The use of Combretum molle (gburagbura in Lugbara) for producing soda ash, used to catalyze food preparation when added to dishes such as beans. Also, abnormal leaf growth on C. molle can be picked and carried to provide good luck when hunting in the bush.

• Two new species, Ximenia americana and Bridelia scleroneura, were identified as fishing species when bark is cut, and placed in dammed sections of the river to poison fish, causing them to float to the surface.

• The roots of a small shrub called njiafe in Lugbara, identified as medicine for cough when pounded and boiled in water as tea.

(Left to right) Werego with edible tubers, fill-in host translator Brian holding malformed leaves of C. molle for hunting luck, and Brian and Morris digging njiafe roots for treating cough

A refugee firewood walk to Bidibidi

On the refugee side, we are now interviewing participants located near the northern and eastern boundaries of Imvepi. Due to a lack of firewood access within Imvepi, these participants cross into the neighboring refugee settlement of Bidibidi to find firewood. That Imvepi residents are travelling to Bidibidi to cut trees I believe is an important finding, given that a forest management plan was recently designed for Bidibidi which does not account for the substantial extraction of firewood from refugees coming from outside the boundaries of Bidibidi.

On Friday, Josephine and I took a 6-hour firewood walk into Bidibidi with a participant I will refer to as "Lucy," accompanied by Lucy's small baby and 6-year old daughter. We departed at 8:30am and followed Lucy who walked briskly across neighboring refugee compounds, through a nearby bushy area identified as a place where hosts can chase refugees away from firewood collection, across two rivers, and then over three miles through the extensive agricultural rental land that stretches from Imvepi over to Bididibidi.

As we moved further and further away from Imvepi, we began to encounter host compounds with amazingly tall trees, such as a tamarind that must have reached 100 feet in height. The host owner planted yams to grow in the shade the tamarind which were also enormous in size—suggesting some important synergy between the yams and the tamarind.

A magnificent tamarind tree with yams growing beneath

Finally we reached a clearing where there were two small shacks constructed from the bark of Borassus palm, with Borassus palm leaves as roofing thatch. These shacks were built by a middle-aged refugee gentleman, who we learned is Lucy's neighbor back in Imvepi, and this is his rental land. Lucy told us that she comes to her neighbor's rental land for firewood collection because it is a place where she can collect wood without fear of inciting conflict with hosts, and her own rental land has no firewood left. The land here seemed quite fertile and the maize planted by Lucy's neighbor looked quite healthy compared to maize that looks dry and wilted closer to Imvepi. He also had planted a homegarden on his rental land with yams, papaya, pumpkin, sweet potato, and sorghum.

Tool storage and rain protection shacks constructed from Borassus palm bark and leaves

Fatigued from our walk, we sat down on wooden chairs in the shade. Lucy's neighbor brought out some cassava tubers from one of the shacks and Lucy's young daughter set to work peeling and chopping the cassava and placing to boil over an open fire. Then he went with his axe to find a large piece of trunk from a fallen tree for Lucy to chop as firewood. Meanwhile, Lucy and her daughter foraged between rows of maize for wild greens, collecting a thick bundle of four different edible species to bring home with them.

Boiling cassava over an open flame, and harvesting edible, wild greens between rows of maize

As we were waiting for firewood to be chopped, my translator Josephine grabbed a hoe and walked towards a nearby forested area at the boundary of the rental land. I followed her to a giant tree known as dir in Kakwa, where some of the tree roots were exposed. Here she began chopping a section of the root which I learned can be dried, pounded, mixed with water, and consumed as medicine for almost any ailment: typhoid, ulcers, malaria, and more. Josephine is leaving soon for nursing school and told me that she wants to harvest and process dir to take with her so she will have it on hand while at school.

Josephine with a piece of dir root which she will process as medicine

After firewood was chopped and bundled, we sat again in the shade, now quite hungry as it was 12:30pm. The cassava was fully cooked and Lucy's daughter arranged the warm, salted tubers on a plate for all of us to share. It was delicious and satisfying, giving us some sustenance for the long walk home. After eating cassava, the participant and her daughter made head cushions for carrying firewood bundles by wrapping and tying dried banana leaves. Lucy's neighbor and his son helped Lucy and her daughter load firewood bundles onto their heads and we set off on our return journey across two rivers and 3.5 miles of farmland and rocky slopes, reaching Lucy's home at 2:30pm. This seven-mile, six-hour walk well exemplified the extra distance many refugees travel in order to find a firewood collection site with assured, safe access.

A firewood bundle head cushion made from dried banana leaves (left) and boiled cassava (right)

Newly-born animals

It must be the season for animal births, because we are encountering newly-born puppies, kittens, and goats all over Imvepi and nearby host villages. We also encountered the heartwarming moment of cat/dog affection pictured below, a good reminder that inter-species love is very possible. Let me leave you with some cute animal photos:

A puppy and kitten assist with Q-sort data collection

More cuteness, including a newly born goat and an affectionate dog/kitten moment

I hope you've enjoyed a these snippets from our last few weeks in the field, and I look forward to sharing more soon. Thanks so much for reading, and stay well!