UGANDA 2025: MURCHISON FALLS NATIONAL PARK, WOMEN'S CO-OP

 July 21, 2025

After our safari drive, we took Bob to a dock area where he would catch a boat to take him to the bottom of Murchison Falls.  We left him at 9:15 and it left at 10:55, so he had to sit and wait for a long time!

William took Ella and me back through the entrance to the park and about a block further to a women's cooperative for single moms called "The Boomu Women's Group." The word boomu means "together." This co-op was formed in 1999 with the goal of reducing malnutrition and poverty levels and to enable children to go to school through income made at the co-op by their mothers. 

There were four women waiting for us who were ready to do some demonstrations. The leader was a woman who started to co-op in the 1990s (I think). She had a lypoma the size of a small orange growing on her jaw, but in didn't seem to bother her and in a picture next to an award dated 2007 that was hanging in the gift shop, it looked exactly the same as it did when we visited. I think she is beautiful, and her confidence made her even more beautiful.

UCOTA is the acronym for Uganda Community Tourism Association, a group that empowers local communities in sustainable development through small-scale tourism and handcraft enterprises. There are 42 member-groups in Uganda, representing 2,121 people of whom 64% are women. This group uses the money they make to help single mothers raise their children and keep them in school (which is not free in Uganda).

Here we are, waiting for our first demonstration on basket weaving. Note the looms behind us that they use to weave their own cloth. They use reeds, fiber from banana plants, and purchased raffia for the baskets. They dye the material themselves and then cut it into thin strands. 

The women sat on a reed mat on the floor to demonstrate how they make the beautiful baskets that the sell in their gift shop.

They begin a basket by wrapping a flat piece around a bundle of fibers, then use a tool to poke a hole in the weaving to insert the wrapping piece through. 

It's tedious, intricate work that requires good fine motor skills. After 20 minutes they each only had a circle about one-inch across.

Next, the woman in charge and one of the others took us to a banana tree on the property to show us how they harvest the matoke bananas (a type of Ugandan banana) with a machete. They cut down the entire stalk, cut off and folded the leaves, and cut open the stems to extract fibers. They chopped up the waste to feed to their livestock--nothing wasted. 

The helper woman made a flat platform out of a banana leaf for her head, then stacked everything on it, beginning with the knife and adding the huge bunch of bananas, the folded leaves, and the fiber.

Back inside, the ladies tried to teach Ella and me how to peel the hard, green matoke bananas with a knife. 

Let's just say that it was a miracle that we managed to come home with all ten fingers.

Next they lined a pot with some of the banana leaves they had cut off the plant outside, filled the pot with peeled bananas and crushed small red peanuts that looked like kidney beans and were as hard as cement, wrapped it all up in more banana leaves, put even more banana leaves over the top and tucked the leaves into the sides of the pot, and then tied it all up with long strands of banana leaves. At that point they can put it on the shelf for months and then pull it out when they need it, cook it, and eat it. I felt like I was at a Relief Society Homemaking Night learning about food storage.

The finished product, ready to go into the storage room.

Meanwhile, two of the other ladies had prepared a simple meal for us--a pot of steamed metoke seasoned with tomatoes and onions. It was fantastic and tasted like really flavorful potatoes. Ella and I were hungry and ate everything put in front of us.

We spent some time in their gift shop and bought two large baskets, one for Ella and one for me for ten or fifteen dollars, an unbelievable price as they take about sixty hours to make. My basket is 16" in diameter and sits on a shelf in my family room. I love it.

We also purchased seven or eight 6"to 10" diameter woven discs that can be used as hot plates or hung on the wall, a woven runner with four matching placemats, and some bracelets. Everything came to just under $50, and although I wish I had paid them more, they seemed delighted with our purchases.