By Katie Cooper
EARTH Futures Associate, Costa Rica
When I accepted an offer to work as a Princeton in Latin America Fellow at EARTH University in Costa Rica, I never thought that I would be on a farm in rural Uganda 25 minutes from the DRC or meet a Ugandan King during the course of my fellowship. As a PiLA Fellow at EARTH University in Costa Rica, I was able to live through these experiences and more on a recent work trip to Uganda with my team.
EARTH University is a private, nonprofit university nestled within the jungle and banana plantations of rural Costa Rica that only offers a degree in agricultural sciences. Students from EARTH hail from across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the African continent; and it’s been incredible to meet students and faculty from all over the world. I work as a Program Associate in EARTH Futures, the global solutions center of the University that seeks to grow the impact of the university across Latin America and Africa. I mainly support projects that receive funding from the Mastercard Foundation including the Mastercard Foundation Fellowship Program - EARTH University. This Fellowship program helps young African graduates transition from university to meaningful employment in agriculture, food systems, and rural development on the continent. As a member of the Fellowship team, I was invited to the team’s annual retreat to Uganda. I had never been to Africa before, and I was so excited to visit a new country and continent. Some of my team members work virtually, so I was also looking forward to connecting with my coworkers in person.
After over 35 hours of travel, I was pretty certain that my coworker and I were the only two people making the journey from Costa Rica to Uganda that day. Once we arrived in Uganda, we met up with our other team members and traveled to the southwestern region of the country to visit a colleague’s farm and home region. We engaged in team-building activities along the way, including stopping at the Equator and nearby Queen Elizabeth National Park. I saw so many hippos, antelopes, and elephants!
My coworker’s family farm is right by the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo near Kasese. It was really interesting to see his farm and learn more about his background. His family prepared chicken pilau and other typical Ugandan dishes for us, and they were delicious.
Throughout the week, we had brainstorming sessions and team meetings in Fort Portal where we discussed how to improve the Fellowship program. During these meetings, I took notes and kept a list of action items for the team. I also contributed my perspective as a recent college graduate completing my own fellowship when my team discussed how to increase camaraderie and networking opportunities among the Fellows. While we were in Fort Portal, we also met King Oyo, the current King of Tooro. While we learned a lot about the culture and history of Tooro, we also learned that the King is a Dallas Cowboys fan (he is pictured below in the Cowboys shirt).
After visiting the King, we traveled to Mubende to visit the home of my other Ugandan coworker and meet his family, which I really enjoyed. Since two of my team members work virtually from Uganda, it was great to get to know them in person. It was also valuable to travel around Uganda with locals, as I loved learning about their country and hearing about their lives.
For the last leg of the trip, we traveled to Kampala for additional brainstorming sessions and meetings. As a part of the curriculum at EARTH, all third-year students spend a semester away from campus working at an internship. While we were already in Kampala, we visited an EARTH student from Uganda who is completing an internship at StartHub Africa, an incubation hub for Ugandan entrepreneurs. We also attended a dinner with Ugandan EARTH alumni.
On our last day in Kampala, we met with Makerere University and discussed points of collaboration between EARTH and Makerere. A couple of Makerere University graduates are Fellows in the program that we support, and the university is looking forward to further cooperation with the Fellowship program. When it was time to fly back to Costa Rica, it was a little difficult to leave the hotel in Kampala and return to my unairconditioned house in the humid tropics.
My PiLA fellowship has already been a life-changing opportunity, and this trip to Uganda was especially transformative. Many projects I work on are rooted in the idea of South-South collaboration and supporting young African leaders. Hence, it was very valuable for me to travel to Uganda with my team to gain a greater understanding of the country and witness collaboration between Africa and Latin America.