Two names that I have never gone by are Dr or Jen. I never liked the idea of shortening my name that much; in fact I’ve gone by Jennie Kate (both my first and middle names) for most of my life excluding high school and college. And in my life I have no accomplishments that warrant the word Doctor to be put in front of my name. However, Dr Jen is what I find myself being called here in Uganda.
As I sat down for the initial meeting with our host he looked at our team and said who is that one that has the beef cattle? He had seen that I had put my background with cattle in my profile that I sent to AIM at the start of the race and then AIM sent my profile to him. I raised my hand, and he asked if I knew cattle and I said “yes!” I grew up on a farm and then studied animal agriculture at university. He hopped up and said “Come, I have something to show you!” He showed me his cattle and pigs and asked to help him improve his management of them. I fought back tears the entre time, because this is literally what dreams are made of.
This month part of my team’s ministry is teaching a curriculum called Farming God’s Way. We are teaching the local farmers here sustainable agriculture practice, with the focus being no till practices to conserve soil and other natural resources that are needed for agriculture around the world.
The area that I am living in this month is in the dry season that started earlier than expected, is hotter than expected and is lasting longer than expected. Food and water are hard to come by and people are starving and dying in the very villages around us here. The people are doing anything to have food, and I mean anything. There are women that are selling themselves for sex in exchange for a few pieces of fruit. This place is in desperate need of agriculture practices that work and produce good yield and in desperate need for Jesus. How cool is it that we get to tell them about both!
So since I do have a background in agriculture, and a degree in agriculture, I got to give a talk highlighting practical practices that people here in Uganda can use on their farm. I even got the privilege to field some questions that they had about ways to improve their farms.
The next day, we got to go out and see one woman’s farm and I got the chance to walk around with her and give her advice on how to make it yield more. She showed me how to use banana trees to grow coffee and I taught her how to make compost to use as fertilizer. She showed me her system for harvesting gas from her cow manure to use to cook and how she churns butter (it was a much different than the way that I had from my grandmother). Basically I learned a lot more from her about agriculture than I could have ever taught her. However, as I was teaching I noticed a word that sounded like Dr come up a lot in what was being into the native tongue. Soon, I was called “the expert” when someone asked me a question in English, and they went on to explain that they have been calling me Dr because I am the expert in agriculture that came to teach them. I’m actually pretty sure that I rolled my eyes when this happened because I am far from being an expert and this type of agriculture isn’t even what I studied in college. And as I introduce myself to the people here I tell them my name is Jennie Kate, then they often stare at me and say “Jen!” So that’s how Dr. Jen became my name here in Rukunjiri, Uganda.
This is a dream come true to be working with farmers here in Africa, in fact it was one thing I asked for when I came on the race. I wanted to work with farmers somewhere in the world and use my degree. To me, this feels like a tangible way to affect the world. Because as one farmer learns a new method they can teach others and share the knowledge, and this is how a hungry world can be fed. Just like when one person experiences Jesus and shares with others that is how the world can come to know Jesus.
