Welcome to the Kololo village. Or better yet Ambakuna as Im getting to know the broader areas’ residents.

2 year ago my brother Cien Keilty-Lucas lived in this quiet little jungle town while organizing the construction of this beautiful school in the background. He slept, ate, worked, and drank coffee with the community for 8 months while getting to know them and now hes back for another round. Just this time, we are beekeeping.



The area has a long history of the trade and the 82 village members we met with on Sunday afternoon acounted for over 300 beehives. They are mainly traditional hives, long cyclinder baskets covered with dried leaves, and produce about 10 kilos of honey a year.

So this time around, instead of building schools my brothers been helping me get our  BeeFreeApiaries beekeepers education program off the ground.



After holding a lottery sunday afternoon to select 18 men and 18 women at random to participate in the program we began on monday with a bit of theoretical work.

Thanks to Tolera Kumsa, from the Holetta Bee research center, the students have been engaged and excited from the start. They are eager in asking questions and already understand the benefits of switching to transitional hives.



We’re only getting started and definitly have our work cut out for us, but its looking to be a promising start to an evergrowing program.