Back to Uganda 2015: Warning: don't read if you're vegetarian

Coming from a life where supermarkets are taking over the world, I am used to buying everything clean and packaged, ready to be eaten or cooked safely. Being in Uganda has shown me the journey of our food before we buy it in a shop.

When you buy rice, most times you cannot cook it straight away. I see the mothers spent sometimes an hour with a big plate full or dry rice, sorting through the grains and picking out stones - something that's not an issue we have to deal with. This also goes for meat. And I don't mean picking out stones from a dead animal,

I mean that people own and grow their own animals rather than popping to Tesco to choose a nice naked ready-to-cook chicken.

Almost every home has some kind of mini farm, whether it be chickens wandering around, pigs, goats tied up or a cow. It's also a kind of bank to save money, as a lot of people here don't have a bank account. Putting your money into buying a nice big cow is a way of saving it without it sitting in your money box waiting to be stolen. And also the cow can give you milk. This also may explain (if the story is true) why the owner of a cow that got struck by lightening the other day ended up fainting...

Anyway, a few months ago, the Village of Hope bought a large amount of chicks to grow and sell/eat.

I got all excited at the cuteness of the chicks, as you can see in the photos.

It's been a strange experience for me to watch them grow and eventually, last Sunday, watch them be slaughtered (by the kids) and then eaten (by them... and me.)

I guess a lot of people back home have probably seen similar but I've been very much in the bubble of just buying it from a supermarket and not seeing the life of the chicken first...or the death.

Seeing the kids so easily cut off it's head was a shock too, even stranger when little Deborah was just standing playing with the chicken heads as it they were some kind of... toy.

Anyway it's been a new experience for me and it's actually a great way for the village to provide their own food and save money.

And it tasted great. (sorry chicken)