Pause for a quick stopover between Bwindi and Ishasha in Queen Elizabeth and taste rural Ugandan life with the indefatigable Agartha!
Agartha’s Taste of Uganda Tour is fun, educational and perfect for the inquisitive visitor who wonders how a rural Ugandan lady lives. Spend half an hour or more with Agartha and see how locally grown millet is transformed into porridge and bread.
Grind it, sip it, get involved!
I’m a big fan of community tourism and this one’s a winner -an award-winner in fact. As well as being an authentic cultural experience, Agartha boasts arguably the funkiest toilet between Bwindi and Queen Elizabeth National Park! It’s a long drive between the two parks and a quick stopover at Agartha’s is a perfect place for stretching the legs and drinking some refreshing bushera millet porridge. Agartha’s hut is a cool place to sit and sample local life.
A typical day on Agartha’s Taste of Uganda Tour
Visitors are welcomed to Agartha’s homestead where you will be invited to sit in her beautiful grass-thatched hut. Here she takes great pride in sharing how the women of her tribe, the Bakiga, prepare their favourite food. Hear how the ingredients are grown and harvested and witness how to shift, grind, cook – and most importantly – keep the food warm for their husbands and children.
The approach is always dusty. It’s a typical village setting – of bicycles, jerry cans, young children and the occasional boda boda. There are few cars here.
Agartha demonstrates how local women treat dry millet, one of the community’s staple foods. She spreads the freshly picked millet in a large flat basket in front of us and works the seeds with her feet, separating them from the stalk. (Agartha has some good dance moves!)
The next part of the process is called winnowing and involves using a wide woven basket to gently throw the grains into the air to let the dry husks blow away. Agartha may invite you to have a go! Next, we are invited to pound the millet with a dry stone to dehusk it. Not as easy as it looks!
The hard work of grinding out of the way, Agartha mixes the millet flour with hot water to make a porridge. (Most Ugandans will add lots of sugar to the mixture as well). Now for the best part: we sip porridge from traditional gourds and munch on freshly roasted soybeans and groundnuts.
Agartha explains that the Bakiga wife must keep the porridge warm for when the husband gets home from the bar(!) Millet porridge is also the first meal a woman receives after giving birth. Millet is high in iron, which helps with the lactation process.
Chatting with Agartha and sampling millet porridge gives you an interesting insight into the everyday life of a Bakiga woman. Three children walk past the open door as we chat. The young girl carries a woven shopping basket. The boy carries a hoe. He is only nine or ten years old. The youngest boy, who can be no more than five, tries to balance a machete on his head. Ducks waddle past the front door.
Agartha and her family live on the edge of Queen Elizabeth National Park, near the Ishasha Sector. The talented Agartha is a craftswoman, tailor and an organic subsistence farmer. She is also the Chairperson of the local community group.
How long does Agartha’s Taste of Uganda Tour take?
You can take part in Agartha’s Taste of Uganda tour any time of the day (strictly by prior arrangement). The tour lasts 30 to 45 minutes and is adjusted according to the time you have available. (Do tell Agartha how long you would like the tour to take when you arrive).
Agartha’s Taste of Uganda Tour is on the main road between UWA Ishasha park gate and Kihihi.
Can I just rock up at Agartha’s when I’m driving through Ishasha?
No please don’t. Agartha is a working farmer so you need to book at least two days in advance (even if you just want to make use of the toilet!) Reservations can be made by phone or email or via your tour operator.
Go to Agartha’s Taste of Uganda Tour in my Travel Directory for booking information and answers to these questions: How much does the tour cost? Where does the money for the tour go? What do other visitors say about Agartha’s Tour? How can I book? How do I get to Agartha’s?
Reservation for Use of her TOILET !!! that have to a fascinating one
Absolutely! It may seem like a small thing but it would be embarrassing for tourists to arrive and the toilet not to be swept (or for there simply not be anyone there to give access).
Agatha is a working farmer and not always on site.
This is one of the challenges of community tourism in rural areas: villagers may wait patiently for days waiting for tourists and no-one comes. We need to give them advance warning so that they are free to tend their crops – until they know tourists are definitely coming. Then they are prepared 🙂
yeah then i see, and BTW when are you writing about this Christmas and new year’s eves..am your big fan reading all your experiences in east africa. And possibly if you could write about your home country to give us a feeling of how life is there may be like a comparison thing
Hi Rogeth
Webale kusiima 🙂 and Happy New Year.
This year’s Christmas on the edge of Kibale Forest was a quiet one (apart from the chimps!) I was too ill with malaria to celebrate – or write about – New Year. Thankfully I’m better now…
I wrote about Christmas in Kibale for the Expat section of the Daily Telegraph website one year. Read “A balmy (and barmy) Christmas in a Ugandan forest.” I don’t like the title, the editor chose it.
You might also enjoy a story I wrote about some of the things I miss from the UK in “Marks & Spencer, how I miss thee.” (Marks and Spencer is a famous chain of stores that you find in all big towns).
I think the favourite article I wrote for the Daily Telegraph is the one about my first years in Uganda “Life in Uganda: a dog named Baldrick and a mouse in my fridge.”
Hahahahahaha i gat to read the last one first, and sorry for the sickness good u recovered..And your luganda classes are doing you good “Awo siwabi” muzungu. Lol
I confess, it’s a long time since I learned any new Luganda words. However, now that I live in Kamwenge, I should be learning Rutoro.
Agandi!
Life in Uganda is so interesting i feel i need to read more than that, Marks and Spencer is kind boring though the imagination of free internet and phone calls struck my mind thinking when we will be there.
And one sentence killing me from the Barmy Christmas is that of Neighbors in kibale trying to recycle Julia’s serviettes for reuse
Yes it seems you agree with me, life in the UK is boring compared to life in Uganda! LOL.
We blessed, just blessed like the Winston Churchhill wrote