Pallisa Youth Conference

By Sara:

In early January, I was invited to speak at a youth conference in Pallisa, about an hour and a half from Soroti.  I have done some work there before and they asked if I could come share with the youth something about agriculture.  I agreed to do this and later found out that there were going to be hundreds of youth at the conference...way more than I expected.  But I survived and they were great participants in my training.

There were also some Dutch pastors and youth leaders there who have been involved in these annual youth conferences for some years, in case you're wondering who those other people are in the front row:

It was very hot and not everyone was a youth, so...

I decided to cover the topic of soil during my allotted two hours.  Since I usually teach this to a smaller group of people, I had to be a bit creative about how to do the fun demonstrations about characteristics of soil.  But I had different volunteers come up and help me with each one and then describe to the people in the way back what they observed.

These young people were very willing to interact and answer my questions and between them, they were able to give a lot of scientific definitions and explain things such as what kinds of agricultural practices damage the soil, what plants need to survive, ways to improve and care for soil, and differentiate between organic and inorganic materials.  Afterward, several of the youth, as well as some pastors who were present, came and told me how much they appreciated the visual aids and practical ideas for how they can be better farmers and care for the land God has given them.

Kids everywhere at lunch break:

There was a wonderful choir which performed in between lunch and the next session to call the youth back into the church.