Mangos- a blessing

fresh picked mangos ready for slicing

 The Mango story begins in the kitchen of Mike and Wendy Cheek. An amazing family we stayed with after selling our home and needing a place to stay for 10 months before leaving for Uganda. We had all went strawberry picking and Wendy helped us to dehydrate them in order to bring to Africa. We started talking about drying foods and Wendy looked up how to build a solar dehydrator. She found one of tin foil and cardboard.

Fast forward. We are now living in Uganda. My sister and her husband came to visit. During the last month I had been researching solar dehydrators. We found one that was built and tested for an area near the equator with similar climate to where we are. Aaron is a hands on guy and gifted builder. He jumped at the idea of making something while he was here. Edward is our Ugandan friend who has built pretty much all of the furniture in our home. It was a beautiful team!

Our family was able to 'test' out the dehydrator for a while. We had heard from several people that there is an abundance of Mangos during the short season. Many of them go to waste. We also tried pineapple and bananas. We would slice them in the morning and eat them in the evening! They have become one of our kids favorite snacks.

This is where Pastor Fred and Pastor Henry come in. Henry has gone to University and studied business. Their hearts are for the ministry of the church, orphans, and sharing Christ with the lost. They make little, if anything, from the church they pastor. It is in a slum of Soroti where there is much poverty. We love this family so much. We shared what we were doing with Mangos in our backyard and they started talking about the over abundance of Mangos they would soon be having in their village. They expressed a desire to also try drying them, so we took the dehydrator out to the village! My sister and brother in law purchased 2 additional dehydrators so they could capitalize on the short mango season. It was beautiful to watch the whole family take part in the process of drying the mangos.

Henry slicing Mangos and Christian sneaking them

Henry with his father and brother

This is where Village Foods began! After solar drying, the dried fruit needs to be pasteurized. Fred and Henry spent time in our kitchen, using the oven, to finish the process. They then packaged them in order to sell.

Livingstone Mukasa came from Kampala to help teach a course on "Setting up a Biblical Business".  Henry and Fred both attended and learned the basics of business and left with a business plan ready to go for helping to guide Village Foods!  

Graduation (No, Kidist was not part of the business training, she just has a gift of sneaking into pictures :)  )

You can now find Organic Solar Dried Mangos on the shelves of the supermarkets in Soroti Town! They have sold everything they made, and are now purchasing Mangos from other areas to be able to continue drying and selling!  They are excited about expanding their market to other nearby cities. We praise God for opening this door for them! This family has been such a blessing to us. We love them dearly.