My African Adventure

By: Jacob Mayer, P.E., Settje Agri-Services & Engineering, Inc.

I have been blessed to visit wonderful places, work on unique projects, and meet incredible people early in my career, but undoubtedly the pinnacle occurred last fall when I flew halfway around the world to the African country of Uganda.

Our company was hired to collect topographic survey data for seven potential sites for livestock development projects by Ag Vision International (AVI; www.agvisioninternational.com). One of the founding partners of AVI, Andrew Uden, is a Nebraska native, and this adventure would have never happened if it was not for his entrepreneurial passion.

For those of you who were like me and knew basically nothing about my destination, Uganda is a landlocked country in Eastern Africa that straddles the equator. It is about the size of the state of Oregon but has a population similar to California. That population has an average age of only 17, and a typical farm laborer there gets paid around $2.00 per day. The climate features temperatures between 65 and 80°F all year round and receives 30 to 40 inches of precipitation annually. It is truly a land of untapped potential.

After 27 plus hours of travel, we arrived in the capital city of Kampala, which would become our home base for the next two weeks. Kampala is about the size of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the hub of Ugandan government and society. Traveling to Uganda was not nearly as interesting as moving internally through the county. The further away from Kampala we drove, the more the roads deteriorated. Many of the highways resembled a county gravel road and were simultaneously being traversed by hundreds of people walking along the shoulder, dozens of motorcycles hugging the edge, and straight trucks overflowing with bananas being passed by cars on both sides. Not to mention that since Uganda was a British colony, we were also on the wrong side of the road.

Most of the agriculture in Uganda is subsistence farming and almost none of it is mechanized. The sites we visited varied from existing working farms to patches of dense brush where I had to follow men with machetes cutting a path for us to move around. We are working on projects that include two dairies, one broiler farm, a farrow-to-finish swine facility, and three beef cattle operations. The owners of these farms are successful businessmen and women, government officials, and influential professionals. All of them have traveled internationally and most of them to the United States. They desire to improve their facilities, genetics, and management by integrating American practices, but they have an impressive foundation to build upon.

Even though I was on a work trip, work is not why I ended up in Uganda. As has happened so often in my life, God was leading my footsteps for other reasons. Our church, Christ Lutheran in Lincoln, Nebraska, supports an amazing place called The HOPE Center Uganda (www.hopecenteruganda.org). I was aware this mission effort existed, but then I had the chance to see it firsthand. HOPE Center Uganda is a small orphanage in Mityana, Uganda, that provides a safe place for abandoned and neglected children to grow and learn about our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is difficult to type these words without getting emotional reflecting on our time there. To say it was life changing does not do it justice. I have always enjoyed traveling, and this trip proved to be as interesting as it was challenging. There are two things I treasure the most about going to new places. The first is an opportunity to build new relationships with people, those I anticipate meeting and the ones that I never imagined crossing paths with. Agriculture is the common thread that brings us together, but it is people that make life worth living. And the second is that traveling always fosters a deeper appreciation of my family and the blessings I have right here at home. May you always stay safe in your travels, whether near or far, and may you always return back to the people who love you the most. Until next time, God Bless.

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