I love synergy. When an idea good for the local environment and people, good for our bottom line and ideal for student learning presents itself, there is little else to do but be excited.
Such is the case with bees. As two of our teachers; A and K, develop the farm program and the kitchen garden, both for use with students during the mandatory sophomore agriculture program (and both ideally helpful to the overall goal of feeding our students without breaking the bank), bees come to mind.
We are spending a few days at a “resort” about five hours from home and beautifully located overlooking Queen Elizabeth National Park. The developer is a man we are learning to really respect. Kind and competent and fair with local people; he invests much of his energy in finding ways to help Uganda. One such interest is in bees and he has put a lot of time and thought and research into understanding local beekeeping, gentler alternatives, organic vs non-organic and what works and what doesn’t. The result?? A new hive design which avoids killing the bees (which leads to bee aggression, surprise) while encouraging hive growth and honey retrieval and uses fairly low-cost local material. We’re excited. The designs are still in testing phases, he won’t be convinced that they are all he hopes for about a year. Meanwhile we’re ready to consider bringing bees to Bundibugyo as part of the process of educating our students not only in agriculture and animal husbandry, but engineering and business design. I won’t bore you with all the potential. Those who know me well know that my passionate energy is ready to sell this new project!
And a cool aside; African bees vs African elephants. Because African elephants are so afraid of bees that even the sound of a hive can cause a stampede, bees may soon be a part of Queen Elizabeth’s attempts to keep elephants off the road going past/through the game park. We have traveled that road at night, narrowly missing elephants just feet away from the unlit passage. One idea is that hives of African bees strategically placed against the road can deter elephants from wandering too close while creating local jobs and food. I think it’s genius!!