entrepreneurial explosion

Turns out I'm an entrepreneur. One of the side effects of living and working in Uganda - opportunity abounds. One Mango Tree continues to grow - adding products and continually widening our customer base, delving into organic cotton and other craft - screen-printing, seed jewelry, etc.

I'm not sure if it's Uganda or it's my changed modus operandi - but all of the businesses I've dreamed of in the past somehow seem much more realistic.

Like...

The eco-B&B somewhere breathtakingly beautiful with a yoga deck.
The yoga studio cafe with a fair trade shop.
The smoothie/juice/coffee shop with wifi.

sipi river lodge at night photo credits joe shymanski

It's a compilation of all of the things that I love. I don't just want to do yoga - I want to design and market organic cotton yoga clothes. I want to organize retreat weekends bringing together Ugandan massage therapists and yoga teachers with beautiful spots like Sipi River Lodge and Rainforest Lodge. The colors, the smell, the taste, the sounds. Right now it all just keeps me energetic and inspired, but at some point I know I'm going to find a spot and put down some roots - build an experience for people to enjoy.

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let's dry these suckers!

And then there's food processing. This week, while working in Gulu on a consulting assignment, I was talking with a colleague about how to dry fruits (merely out of curiosity - brought on by the mounds of mangoes to be found all over northern Uganda right now). After hearing how she dried fruits in Peace Corps in Benin, my mind went crazy over the idea of artisan-dried fruits to market and sell within East Africa and possibly abroad! One Mango Tree dried fruits!

Sometimes I wonder if I've totally lost it. Or found it?