Thursday, May 11, 2017

Vegetarians, Avert Your Eyes!

If you enjoy beef, and especially if you like it rare, you might want to consider moving to South Sudan.  


Meat your meat


I took this photo in Uluah Refugee Camp.  A bare stretch of dirt baked by the sun, transformed for a few hours each week into an open-air butcher shop. An enterprising group of refugee women have pooled the small business loans provided to them by Mercy Beyond Borders. Working together, they purchase a cow, slaughter it, and quickly sell every last piece except for the head. The head stays, in order to prove to others that this is not a cow stolen from someone else. 
Unsold meat hangs from a tree


The women make a tidy profit, and they're proud of that.  "Do you ever quarrel among yourselves over how to run the business?" I asked them. They looked at one another and replied, "Quarrel? No, we share the same goal. We work together so we can succeed!”




Thursday, May 4, 2017

Something "Fishe" Here...

One of the joys of travel lies in chancing upon the occasional quirky sign.  At my overnight lodging in Entebbe (before heading north to the refugee camps along the South Sudan border) each of the guest rooms had the name of local flora or fauna. This was definitely my favorite.


Little known fact: in ancient Rome, writing contained no spaces between words.  (As if Latin were not difficult enough to read...)  In Entebbe, creative spacing is apparently the order of the day!