If you don’t think a grown man can cry, you should have been with me in Barlonyo, Uganda, that day back in 2012. It was the morning after a terrible windstorm, and I was standing in the middle of a project into which we had poured money, work, hope, and more than a few painful lessons. To understand why that moment affected me so deeply, however, I need to take you back to the beginning of the Barlonyo story.

Barlonyo suffered a great deal during the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda. In 2004, rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army attacked a camp for internally displaced people there. The attackers forced people into their thatched-roof huts and set them on fire. Those who tried to escape were shot or beaten to death. More than 200 people were killed in the attack.

The LRA became notorious for abducting children and forcing many of them to become soldiers. Some were compelled to commit terrible acts of violence against civilians and other abducted children as a means of creating fear, enforcing obedience, and preventing escape.

It was difficult for me to comprehend that kind of suffering. Yet from my first trip to Uganda, I was struck by the joy and hope of its people. Even in the north, where communities had endured terrible bloodshed, violence, and disease, people were deeply grateful that they no longer had a war to contend with. They welcomed us with open arms and a phrase we heard everywhere: “You are welcome!”

Working with Crossroads Christian Communications, a Canadian Christian television ministry; Victory Outreach Ministries, a local church; and the surrounding community, we planned an outreach for Barlonyo. Crossroads built a school and medical clinic and drilled a well. Field of Hope installed a solar-powered pumping system to provide water for the school, clinic, nearby families, and a drip-irrigation demonstration garden. The garden was intended to show improved growing practices, provide income for the church, and produce vegetables for the school.

Our initial plan was ambitious. For the garden, we purchased 1.65 acres, fenced the land, hired workers, built raised beds, installed drip irrigation, and established a nursery bed where plants could be started from seed. The water system was equally ambitious. It included a pump, solar panels, an inverter, batteries, and two 10,000-liter water tanks mounted on a stand roughly 25 feet high. At the time, the plan made perfect sense to us, but looking back, I can see how much we still had to learn.

Our first lesson was that beginning with a garden of more than 1.5 acres was much too ambitious. It would have been better to start small and add acreage later. Our second lesson arrived when we began filling the water tanks. Together, the two tanks held more than 44,000 pounds of water, and as they filled, we noticed that the tall stand was beginning to lean and was in danger of falling over.

Watching that enormous structure begin to lean was terrifying! It was also the moment we realized that good intentions and an impressive-looking plan were no substitute for qualified people and a system that could be maintained locally. After some investigation, we learned that the contractor did not have the experience required for a project like this. We had to start over with a new water system and tank stand, so we brought in a reputable contractor and installed a much simpler system. It worked very well and is still operating today.

Then came the agricultural lessons. Pests and diseases seem to come running when you create a lush garden in the middle of a dry area. We learned about controlling them and using mulch to retain moisture and reduce weeds in the raised beds. What we could not control were the brutal storms and winds.

The Global Orphan Project is an organization dedicated to keeping families together during times of crisis and has had a significant outreach in Uganda. Its country manager, a good friend of ours, asked if she and her team could visit the garden and learn more about drip irrigation. At the time, we had a large plot of healthy tomatoes and peppers.

I called Agnes Obote, someone whose wisdom and leadership would soon become critical to Field of Hope, and asked if she could tell the workers to make sure the garden was clean, weed-free, and ready for our visitors. I wanted everything to look good.

The evening before the visit, a windstorm struck.

When we arrived the following morning, the raised beds had basically been wiped clean. Only a few small, broken twigs remained, bravely poking out of the soil where rows of peppers and tomatoes had been growing the day before. We stood there staring at the devastation. I was absolutely speechless, which for me is really saying something.

I thought about the problems with the first water system and all the challenges we had already faced with the garden. After everything we had invested and everything we had learned, it felt as if the wind had taken it all away overnight. And yes, a grown man can cry.

But we started over, planted another crop, and added shade netting to help protect the plants from the wind and harsh sun and retain more moisture.

Looking back, I don’t regret the Barlonyo garden. It provided vegetables for the school, generated income for the church, demonstrated improved growing practices, and the water system continues to serve people today. But the garden was a harsh classroom for me. It humbled me and taught me that good intentions were not enough. Solutions that looked sensible from our perspective in the United States could not simply be transferred to Uganda without listening to the people who understood the land, the culture, and the realities of maintaining them.

We also began to understand that owning and operating large, asset-heavy agricultural projects ourselves was not the best way for Field of Hope to reach the greatest number of people. Those early lessons helped shape the Field of Hope that exists today, an organization increasingly guided by knowledgeable Ugandan leaders and focused less on owning large projects and more on equipping people with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to build something lasting for themselves.

As some of those early doors began to close, other doors started to open. The most important change came when we identified talented Ugandans who were passionate about serving and blessing their country—and when we became smart enough to follow their lead. That change eventually led Field of Hope toward something far more sustainable.

The wind may have taken out the peppers and tomatoes, but it did not take the lesson. That lesson helped prepare us for the next part of the Field of Hope story.

For anyone interested in learning more about what happened at Barlonyo in 2004, The New Humanitarian provides a detailed account of the attack here.

From the Field

The photos from Barlonyo tell much of the story themselves. They show the 1.65-acre garden as the raised beds were being built and drip irrigation lines installed, followed by thriving crops of cabbage, watermelon, tomatoes, and peppers. One photo shows Brandy Young and Agnes Obote looking over the pepper crop.

They also document some of the lessons we learned along the way. The original water tank stand was poorly designed and constructed, requiring us to start over with a proper foundation and a new tank stand. The solar system installed to power the well pump remains in use 14 years later.

About the author: Mike Hafner is a co-founder of Field of Hope, which he helped establish alongside Cathy Hafner and Brandy Young 15 years ago. Since then, Mike has made more than 30 trips to Uganda, witnessing firsthand the people, partnerships, and experiences that have shaped the organization. Through this series, he shares some of the stories that have stayed with him and the people who continue to remind him why this work matters.

How could someone like me, who hadn’t traveled outside the country until he was 60 years old, knew nothing about agriculture, and was probably one of the pickiest eaters around, end up traveling to Uganda close to 40 times and counting? That’s a great question.

You are my friends, so I’m going to tell you the good and the bad, including some of my own mistakes along the way. Those mistakes taught us a lot and helped shape Field of Hope into something much different—and, I believe, much more sustainable—than what we originally envisioned.

It really started with a great friend of ours, Brandy Young. Cathy and I met Brandy when we lived in Bettendorf, Iowa. She worked for John Deere for a time and eventually decided to leave Deere and pursue vocational ministry. That eventually took her to Uganda, where she saw firsthand the devastation in the northern part of the country.

Northern Uganda was just coming out of roughly 20 years of civil war. Many families had spent much of that time living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, separated from their homes, their land, and the farming that had supported their families. Many families had also endured terrible violence and trauma during the war, while crowded camp conditions brought additional struggles with malaria, diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, cholera, malnutrition, and other illnesses.

Brandy was a farm girl. She saw the opportunity agriculture could offer families returning from the camps as they worked to rebuild their lives and become self-sufficient on their own land. Cathy and I wanted to support her, so we jointly decided to form Field of Hope.

Since we were John Deere people, our thought was that if we could supply tractors, plows, and improved seeds, we could help farmers make that leap. For farmers who had been displaced into camps and had no resources, it simply wasn’t realistic for them to cultivate dozens of acres of overgrown, neglected land by hand and return it to productivity.

And this is where it gets interesting. We learned that good intentions aren’t always enough, and some lessons just aren’t found in a book. You have to live through them. I promised the good and the bad, so here they are.

The Good

The plan worked. As we had hoped, the tractors provided a bridge between displaced farmers and their land, helping those returning from the camps get their farms back into production. This included plowing overgrown land and providing improved seeds for a couple of growing seasons to help farmers get started again.

Farmers who had previously prepared their land with hand hoes could get considerably more acreage planted on time. That meant the potential for more food for their families and more crops that could be sold for income. It also led to some long-term changes in mindset. Over time, farmers experienced the benefits of plowing and became willing to pay to have that service again.

The Bad

However, the longer we operated the tractors, the more we realized it was much harder than expected. Purchasing and shipping the tractors was reasonably straightforward. Getting them into the field and keeping them operating was much more expensive and complicated.

Because of a lack of trucks and trailers, the tractors often needed to be driven for hours over rough roads just to reach the farms, only to then battle overgrown, difficult fields. This caused physical damage to the tractors and accelerated wear. Finding qualified operators was difficult, and preventive maintenance was very challenging. Parts were often unavailable in-country, and the nearest dealership was one country over. On many of our trips to Uganda, we carried basic maintenance parts, such as fan belts and filters, in our suitcases to keep the tractors running.

The Outcome

Was it difficult? Absolutely. But we didn’t regret it for one minute. We saw the difference those tractors could make for farmers trying to rebuild their lives after years of war. At this stage, the need was so fundamental. The tractors provided a lifeline for farmers trying to reclaim their land, and we knew the work was worth doing, so we kept working through the problems.

As farmers in northern Uganda began to find their footing again, the immediate need for this type of relief work lessened. Rather than continue investing Field of Hope’s resources in tractors to provide commercial plowing services, we began to see that there were other, more efficient and sustainable ways we could use those same resources to help more people.

Even today, when I see people preparing a large field with hand hoes—often women working with very young children on their backs—it is hard for me to watch. I know what mechanization could do to reduce that backbreaking labor.

Which raises the question: Can a commercial plowing operation be successful in Uganda? I believe it can. But our experience taught us that success involves much more than buying a tractor and a plow. It requires a solid business plan, reliable parts and service, trained operators and mechanics, and a laser-like focus on preventive maintenance.

The numbers also need to work. That means accounting for depreciation, maintenance and repairs, tires and unexpected damage, proper land preparation, and perhaps most importantly, keeping that tractor working throughout the year with the right attachments—not just during plowing season.

We’ll talk about Field of Hope’s smarter, more sustainable approach in an upcoming post. But next, I’ll share another one of those early learning experiences.

From the Field

Before the tractors ever went to work, we conducted operator and mechanic training to prepare the team for what was ahead. Willie Van Zyl from Batho Pele in South Africa led much of that training and was one of the best instructors I’ve come across. He spent time in the classroom, around the tractors, and in the field, helping everyone understand the different aspects of tractors and mechanization.

The training attracted plenty of attention. Schoolchildren gathered across the road to watch, and as the sessions continued, our audience kept growing. One particularly enthusiastic observer even found his own way to get a better view.

Once the tractors reached the fields, the interest continued. One video shows a tractor working through a typical field that needed plowing—with quite an audience of children watching everything unfold.

About the author: Mike Hafner is a co-founder of Field of Hope, which he helped establish alongside Cathy Hafner and Brandy Young 15 years ago. Since then, Mike has made more than 30 trips to Uganda, witnessing firsthand the people, partnerships, and experiences that have shaped the organization. Through this series, he shares some of the stories that have stayed with him and the people who continue to remind him why this work matters.

For reasons I’m not entirely sure of, I’ve never shared much about my trips to Uganda.

I think part of it is that I’ve never quite known how to tell these stories. The experiences have meant a great deal to me, but the stories I’ve most wanted to share really aren’t about me. They’re about the remarkable people I’ve had the privilege of meeting along the way.

After 15 years with Field of Hope and more than 30 trips to Uganda, I’ve begun to realize that by staying quiet, I’ve also kept some of those people and their stories from friends who might enjoy knowing about them.

Fifteen years ago, Cathy and I helped start Field of Hope with a simple desire to serve others through agriculture and education. Over the years, that work has taken us in directions we never could have imagined.

We’ve partnered with agricultural specialists in Uganda and the U.S., worked alongside farmers and women’s groups to improve agricultural practices and build greater financial independence, and helped young people discover the possibilities of agriculture through classroom education, school gardens, crop demonstrations, and animal projects.

More recently, that journey has also led Field of Hope into helping communities gain access to clean water.

I’ve been the one fortunate enough to make the trips to Uganda, while Cathy has faithfully supported every one of them from home. There are many ways to be part of something.

I recently returned from another visit, and what I saw represents another chapter in a story that has been unfolding for 15 years. There were five new water wells and many celebrations I will never forget. There were farmers and agriculture projects, chickens and goats, classrooms filled with young people, students using poetry to challenge their generation to think about hunger, and four remarkable women living in circumstances most of us can hardly imagine.

But more than projects, there were people. That’s really what I’d like to share.

I’ve learned over the years that I often go to Uganda thinking I’m going there to encourage others. I usually come home realizing they have encouraged me. The people’s faith, resilience, joy, and determination continue to teach me a great deal about what really matters.

So perhaps it’s finally time I shared a few of their stories. I think they’re worth telling.

The Journey for Water

In Oyam District in Uganda, women collect water from ponds like the one pictured here for their families. It is not uncommon for women to walk more than three miles to fetch water. In this photo, you might notice that the woman in the green dress is pregnant.

Unfortunately, cattle and other animals also drink from these ponds, making the water unsafe. It is also not uncommon for people to wash motorcycles and bicycles in the same water.

The yellow containers the women use hold 20 liters, or about five gallons, of water. When full, each weighs approximately 40 pounds, and women typically carry the containers on their heads.

In this video, Agnes Obote, Field of Hope’s general manager in Uganda, demonstrates how women collect water from a similar source in Dokolo District. Agnes has been with Field of Hope since the beginning.

Not only is the quality of the water concerning, but these water sources can also present a hazard to children playing nearby. As you watch Agnes fill the container, you can see just how long this seemingly simple daily task can take.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll share more about the people behind Field of Hope’s work and some of the stories I’ve been fortunate enough to witness along the way.

About the author: Mike Hafner is a co-founder of Field of Hope, which he helped establish alongside Cathy Hafner and Brandy Young 15 years ago. Since then, Mike has made more than 30 trips to Uganda, witnessing firsthand the people, partnerships, and experiences that have shaped the organization. Through this series, he shares some of the stories that have stayed with him and the people who continue to remind him why this work matters.

Every journey begins with a single step, but some journeys leave footprints that remain long after the road has ended. When I stepped into my internship at Field of Hope, I knew I was beginning an important chapter of my academic journey, but I did not know just how exciting, challenging and transformative the experience would become. I arrived as an agriculture student carrying knowledge from the classroom, but Field of Hope became the bridge that connected that knowledge to the realities of communities, farmers and everyday life. 

At first, everything felt new, the people, the environment, the activities and even the rhythm of working beyond the classroom. Yet, like a seed placed in fertile soil, I slowly began to grow. Each day brought something different to learn and someone new to learn from. I discovered that agriculture is not simply about crops, animals and soils; it is also about people, relationships, resilience and creating opportunities that can transform lives. 

One of the most exciting parts of my journey was participating in community outreach activities. Travelling to different communities and interacting with farmers gave me an opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and put my knowledge into practice. I participated in nutrition and gender training sessions, where we shared knowledge on better nutrition, gender roles, prevention of gender-based violence, education of children and the importance of preventing early marriages. Standing before community members and sharing what I knew taught me a valuable lesson: knowledge becomes more meaningful when it is shared. 

My journey did not stop with communities and farmers. I also had the opportunity to visit schools and speak to young people about agriculture. Standing before students and encouraging them to look at agriculture beyond the traditional perception of it as merely digging and planting was particularly fulfilling. I shared the possibilities that agriculture offers in agribusiness, technology, livestock, crop production and innovation. Through these interactions, I became part of a bigger conversation encouraging the next generation to see agriculture not only as a career, but as a field filled with possibilities. Establishing agricultural clubs further gave students a platform to learn, explore their interests and grow their passion for agriculture. It reminded me that when we inspire a young mind, we plant a seed whose fruits may be enjoyed for generations. 

As the saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” My experience confirmed the truth in these words. Working with staff, fellow interns, farmers, teachers and students showed me the power of teamwork. Every person had something to contribute, and every interaction added another piece to the bigger picture. 

My journey also took me beyond the office and into practical agricultural enterprises. At TAF Farm, I explored different aspects of farming, including fish production, soil management, manure utilisation, tree planting and Black Soldier Fly production. Learning how fish ponds are managed and stocked, understanding the importance of proper pond inlets and outlets, and seeing how organic waste can be transformed into useful animal feed opened my eyes to the possibilities within agriculture. 

The Black Soldier Fly unit was particularly fascinating. Watching the process from eggs to maggots and learning how the maggots can be harvested, processed and incorporated into animal feed made me realise that what may appear to be waste can actually become a valuable resource. It reminded me that sometimes opportunity hides in places where we least expect it.

My internship was not without challenges. There were moments when I had to adapt, learn quickly and step into unfamiliar situations. However, every challenge became a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block. I learned to communicate more confidently, work with different people, manage my time and approach unfamiliar tasks with curiosity instead of fear. Little by little, the student who entered the organisation with questions began to leave with experiences, skills and a broader vision. 

Perhaps the greatest lesson I gained is that education does not end when we leave the classroom. Sometimes, the most important lessons are written in the field in conversations with farmers, interactions with students, hands-on activities, long journeys, teamwork and even the challenges we face along the way. Field of Hope gave me a living classroom where theory met practice and where learning became an experience rather than merely a concept. 

Looking back, I can confidently say that my internship has been more than a requirement for my academic programme. Mentorship, Bible study and personal development books shaped my character, discipline and perspective, teaching me integrity, humility and service. They strengthened my desire to become not only a knowledgeable agricultural professional, but one who serves communities with purpose and compassion. To cultivate a better profession, I must first cultivate myself. It has been a journey of discovery, growth and purpose. It has watered the seeds of my passion for agriculture and strengthened my desire to use the knowledge I gain to make a difference in communities and inspire young people to embrace agriculture. 

As I continue my academic journey, I carry with me more than notes and memories. I carry lessons, friendships, confidence and a renewed understanding of what agriculture can achieve. The journey may have started with a single step into Field of Hope, but the footprints it has left on my heart will continue to guide my steps into the future. 

Tracy Faith Cherotich, Field of Hope Intern 2026