Chilli picking

Nataly and I are picking chillies for a family of orphaned children. The Diocese here has a programme to support vulnerable families and gave all of them in the scheme a kilo of chilli seeds a few years ago. The idea is that the families plant, cultivate, harvest and market the crop to provide extra funds - the chillies are marketed through a co-operative overseen by the Church. We had to wear latex gloves to protect our skin from the burning juices and spent half an hour seeking out the tiny red ripe chillies on the bushes which grew amongst yams, matoke, pineapples and coffee. All ten of us picked and only gathered about £1 worth of chillies. So it is a hard graft - but, on the positive side, Ugandans don't tend to eat chillies so the crop usually remains safe from thieving neighbours!