Today we journeyed east toward Lake Malawi stopping along the way to visit a company that processes peanuts, soybeans, edible corn, rice, and pigeon peas.  Out of these legumes and grains they make a variety of food products ranging from peanut butter to baby cereal.  The reason for the stop was to determine if our new program can recruit volunteers to help farmer groups organize and strengthen the link between them and this ready market.  Management of the company agreed to host a series of volunteers to tackle this objective.

Another stop was to visit the management team of a very modest agrodealer who serves 364 smallholder farmers.  The cooperative is busy on a project with the company I work with to install a peanut and soybean processing line.  Management agreed to host a series of volunteers to accomplish two objectives, i.e. help in startup of the peanut processing line and training the board of directors on cooperative principles.

Now all of this is boring though I have posted some pictures on Spypics that show how modest a reasonably good cooperative is coping in Malawi.  I have also posted picturs of the kind of countryside that exists in this part of Malawi.  There is an unusual picture of a huge grain storage site where the national food security grain is held.

But on to the best part, we did eventually reach the beautiful Lake Malawi, the pride of Malawi.  We had a late luncheon just off the beach at the Livingstonia Lodge, named after the famed explorer.  We had a delightful meal of tilapia, mushroom soup, and kuava juice.  It was rather expensive but I think we paid for the beautiful and peaceful view of the lake.

This is the last posting of Spyguy's covert trip to Africa.  I hope you enjoyed the blog and pictures and the explanation of our new program designed to benefit the smallholder farmers of East and South Africa.  Hopefully I will weather the long, long trip Home and can fill in some of the blank spots that you may have noticed.  Of all the blogs, I liked the Obama ones the best and of the pictures --the possible secret agent disguised as a dikdik taking a pee right in front of me.  The gall of that critter.

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So far we have held or participated in four conferences, all to do with agriculture development in Africa.  We have launched our new volunteer program in four coutnries, traveled the countryside in all four, visiting agriculture input suppliers, and our local team and I launched the program in Malawi today.  Tomrrow I will be treated to a trip to ag input dealers and processors of peanuts and soybeans ending with a tilapia dinner on the shores of Lake Malawi.  I will post pictures taken during that trip. 

The next day, Friday, Februrary 6, I start the long trip back Home to Agent 99.  As many of you know, she is busy organizing the YES WE CAN--YES WE DID!! Obama inauguration celebration.  As a reminder, the first 40 ladies through the door will receive a beaded necklace made by the Self Help ladies of Kugelo, Kenya, birthplace of Barack's father and Home to his grandmother.  According to Agent 99 the attendance is high so all the ladies may not receive a necklace.

The conferences have been going well attended by officials from USAID, Ministry of Agriculture, Association of Farmer Groups, and agribusiness persons as well as farmers.  Attendance has been quite good, usually about 40.  We had nearly 50 today (our best attendance) as well as the press and television.  If you can tune into Malawi TV you must might see me on TV tomorrow.  So you see I had a legitimate reason for coming to Africa.

In every country the story is always the same — the small-scale farmer, who produces 80% of the food still cannot produce enough to keep up with the growing population.  This year, for example, Kenya will have 10 million people go hungry.  Though living in countries with excellent potential because of climatic conditions, soil, and varying altitudes, the typical farmer just doesn't have the skills, financing, and technology to increase his yields.  With the world-wide food crisis, USAID is ramping up their budgets to fund programs designed to help the farmer produce more and make a profit while doing it.  That is good news for the company I work for because it has a strong foothold in Africa.  It may be good news for Agents 75 and 99 because it could give us an opportunity to travel again if the company continues to grow.

Hope to see you on Saturday, February 7, at the Senate District 32 fundraiser.

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We arrived in Arusha, a city of about 200,000 people and checked into a most delightful hotel, the African Tulip.  It turns out the city has several very nice hotels because this is the place one comes 'to do' Africa.  More about that later.  Tanzania has the capacity to feed the continent (notice I said continent, not country, dig, dig).  It has great undeveloped irrigation potential, 1,000,000 acres.  The country has varying altitudes so the many microclimates afford the possibility to grow almost anything, from corn to pineapple and mangos to potatoes.  Thanks to the extinct volcanoes which spewed their rich lava across the land, the soil can be very fertile.

Presently, however, the country suffers from food shortages because the people have not had the foresight to see that the population growth would overwhelm the agricultural practices of the past.  So our job is to train the stakeholders who farm their small parcels of land and make sure they have right crop inputs.  We need to bring them from being a subsistence farmer to a profitable farmer, i.e. raise more crops than one needs to feed himself and get the surplus to market to feed the growing urban population,  all the while making a profit so he can invest in modern technology and continue to increase his yields.  Thankfully the farmer has an enabling government that is serious about poverty alleviation and it appears ready to assist any project that is consistent with theirs.  Though it would take years of effort and many, many success stories.  Tanzania could be an agriculture powerhouse with the ability to feed Africa.

But back to the volcanoes.  If you want to see the real Africa, fly into the Arusha International Airport,  located at the base of Kilimanjaro.  You can spend a week climbing the mountain.  It is nearly 20,000 feet and partially snowcapped. If you are lucky enough to make it to the top you will be treated with a magnificent view of the crater. After the climb, move to the African Tulip (they have a great chef) in Arusha, the headquarters for groups making safaris into the Serengeti and other national parks.  There are two places that are a must see, the crater (an extinct volcano and Home to most of the African animals) and the Serengeti.  One could use a week exploring these attractions.  We had a guide on our mini safari who assured me that if I did a safari to the Serengeti with him, he would guarantee that I would see a kill.  He saw one kill directly in front of his vehicle and blood of an impala spattered his windshield.

After a week of climbing and a week of trekking, one should be totally exhausted.  The next thing to do is to fly to Zanzibar, an island off Tanzania that has fabulous hotels, moderately priced, great seafood, spectacular beaches, and an expansive view of the Indian Ocean.

On this trip we did not have time to do more than one mini safari to the Tarangira National Park.  It is a large tract of land, over 2,000 sq. kilometers, and the resting place for many of the animals as  the herds migrate back and forth from Tanzania and into Kenya, up and down the great rift of Africa.  Tarangira is Home to the birthing animal females.  The park was only a 90-minute drive from Arusha, so on a Saturday afternoon we readied our camera, and I my straw hat, and were off.  We arrived at the park shortly after 2 p.m. so we only had three hours of trekking through the park.  I must say, though I have visited many zoos and have seen most of the animals I saw that day, there is something about seeing animals in the wild.  Agent 99 has posted some of the many shots I took that day.  Of course, this trip only whetted my appetite to experience a full-fledged safari into the Serengeti.  Maybe next time.  BTW, I detected only one suspicious animal that could have been a spy in disguise.  It was a female dikdik and it squatted and urinated directly in front of me. 

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In an earlier blog I talked about a nomadic tribe that lives on an open range of land that stretches from Nairobi to well past Arusha, Tanzania,  It is a very, very large section of land apparently protected by the different country governments.  The Maasia tend a very small breed of goat and cattle and have small gardens near their compounds.  Each compound is surround by a grass fence containing a large grass hut for the head of the famiy and each wife has a small grass hut to herself.  I wonder if Agent 99 would like her own grass hut!?

Tonight at dinner I struck up a conversation with a young fellow from England who was seated at the table next to me.  He was here to work on a poverty alleviation project.   We got around to talking about the Maasia and he told me he had an extraordinary experience staying with a tribe for a few days.  The chief had called a special meeting of the tribe to talk about his change agenda.  It seems everyone is into change lately.  The chief wanted the children to go to school as the government has mandated and the young adults to join the modern culture.  He was met by fierce resistance.  Many still wanted each young male to drink the blood of an animal and kill a lion before he could be considered a man.  Of course, the young males were still in favor of polygamy.

But some change is coming.  As we drove from Arusha to Nairobi I noticed a young man, about 6 ft 4 in tall with two young females at his sides who were of an equal height of about 6 ft.  All three were about a foot wide.  They were decked out in their beaded finery and as we passed I saw that the young man was working his Blackberry probably text messaging to who knows where.  I wonder if he had killed a lion.

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Before I write a piece on Tanzania, I must tell you about an extraordinary conversation I had with a Kenyan at the Pool Bar in Nairobi. I was sat down at the bar waiting for my colleagues to join me and the Kenyan program was showing on TV. Since noone seemed to be watching it, I was polite and asked if anyone knew what Obama was doing that day hoping they would change it to CNN. Well, the guy across from me, about my height and twice as wide said that we could count on something significant. Then he said that he knew Barack's father. He told me a little about him and said he wanted him to run for the Parliament. Barack's father told him that he couldn't put up with the corruption and told this guy that he ought to run. He ran and has served in the Parliament for 35 years and was Minister of Education for a time. He said that Barack's father was a brilliant man but couldn't deal with his reality and started drinking and then eventually died an alcoholic. We exchanged some praising words about Obama and he said that you can't imagine what it did for Kenya and the world that the US would elect a first generation Kenyan/American. When we parted he introduced himself as Peter.

When I got to the office I asked one of the older guys about this gentleman explaining my conversation and describing the man. He was identified as Peter Aringo, the representative in the Parliament from Kogelo area. He was authentic, so now I can say I had a conversation with a man that knew Barack's father.

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This morning we began our 5+ hour trek to Arusha from Nairobi. We traveled by car taking an hour just to get out of the Kenyan capital. Traffic was horrendous. My colleague, Gideon, told me it took 2 hours to get the hotel from the city limits the day before when he returned from the country. 

Once out of the city we were greeted by some very fascinating countryside. It is inhabited by the Massai people. They are nomads, herding cattle and goats for a subsistence. The Massai have bodies about a foot wide and over 6-ft. tall and wear colorful clothing to emphasize their physique. The pastoral land stretched from Nairobi all the way to Arusha, Tanzania. Aside from the rather sparse grassland, a kind of scub oak dots the landscape as well as termite mounds that resemble a stovepipe. Some termite mounds had been formed adjacent to the highway and they were such a height, I saw one speed zone sign posted atop of the earthen formation.  Occasionally I could see the Massai dwellings, a round straw or mudhut. I understand the chief may have a concrete structure. The Massai are polygamists and elderly rich men often take 12-yr old girls for wives. If I were rich I wonder what Agent 99 would think about that.

We spotted an ostrich along the way and I snapped a picture. As I did a Massai man came running up to try to sell me some charcoal that Massai people make from the tree trunks I described before. It is a living I guess. Our driver stopped by a roadside market to put his order in for a couple of bags. It is much cheaper to buy here rather than the markets in Nairobi. Kenyans use it for cooking food. 

We crossed the border after paying $100 for a Tanzanian visa and changed vehicles with our earlier vehicle heading back to Nairobi. Our new driver it turned out was a driver for the Bush entourage when he visited Arusha last year. He now is an employee of the company I work for stationed in Arusha. As we neared Arusha I had my trusty camera ready for the anticipated shot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. As we neared the weather became very heavy, rainy, and cloudy. The famous subsahara mountain was nowhere to be seen. I wonder why every movie I have ever seen about Africa has a crystal clear view of the snowcapped peak. 

We rolled into Arusha, a much smaller city than Nairobi, and school had just been let out. The streets were lined with children all dressed in their school uniforms, packs over their shoulders, heading home. A favorite color seemed to be purple, reminding me to bring Agent 99 a souvenier of Tanzanite.  We checked into a very very nice hotel, the African Tulip, put on my swimming trunks and headed for the pool, a favorite workplace for spys. Just as a stretched out, it started to sprinkle. I looked at the clouds and thought it was going to get worse. I started back to my room and then thought, being a tough Nebraskan/ Minnesotan I returned to the lounge chair and fell asleep.  

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After a leisure Sunday morning, we caught the flight from Kampala back to Nairobi that afternoon. When we took our seats in the aircraft, I found myself sitting next to Rolf Campbell, an ex-Land O' Lakes employee who worked in the International Development Division. He now works for a food company in Nairobi. Rolf had transferred from R&D over to the IDD about the time Agent 99 and I started our 10-yr adventure in the Former Soviet Union. Like all of us in this business, once in, you can't imagine doing anything else.

Upon our arrival we were met by our driver and escorted to our new digs, the Jacaranda Hotel, to make ready for our next day conference to launch our new program in Kenya. The conference was well attended with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and USAID and the program was launched with enthusiasm and high expectations. After the conference I was back to my double duty assignment. Being a resourceful Spyguy the first things I did was get back to the hotel, grab my laptop as a diversionary ploy, and took my place on one of the lounge chairs by the side of the pool. I found this  to be a perfect position to observe the comings and goings of suspicious characters or would be double agents. Agent 99 has posted a picture showing me working for Freedom throughout the World. 

Today, I am in meetings all day, maybe another covert assignment by the pool later in the afternoon. Tomorrow we travel by car to Arusha, Tanzania. 

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Kampala, the capital of Uganda appears from my hotel room as a lush, tropical, and maybe rather nice city. Yes it is lush is some parts, particularly where the rich dwell and the golf course area that was carved out of a gorge full of heavy jungle-like vegetation a decade ago. It is located in the city center and appears to be a tough and scenic course. Had drinks and chicken gizzard sautee there one night and the veranda wasn't anything to write Home about.

George, our lead man in Uganda, gave us a "cultural experience" yesterday, Saturday. We visited the "other" part of Kampala as well as the city museum and shopping. First the museum. Uganda had a sophisticated governing system prior to the Brit's arrival in the 19th century. The takeover was spearheaded by the East African Trade Company. There was little if any resistance because of the overwhelmiing firepower of the British guns. Bows and arrows and spears just don't matchup. The Ugandans could understand that. The museum grounds displayed the various styles of grass huts where the natives made their homes. I was surprised to hear that northeastern people still inhabit this type of structure.     

During our minor shopping spree for souveniers, I just had to have an African-design shirt, George mentioned going for a beer which led to a curious discussion. George informed us that Ugandans drink two kinds of beer, one brewed from grain and one brewed from bananas. Well, my colleague and I just had to have a "banana" beer. So off we went through the city market down a dirt road under my assumption that we were going to find it in bottles at some local kiosk.

George eventually turned off onto a what I would call a lesser maintained road and much poorer quality of trading booths and teeming with poorer appearing people. He stopped the car and told us to stay put while he located a source. Shortly he returned and with some trepidation we followed him down the street with children  coming up and wanting to shake our hands. George led us into a small shelter where a guy was dispensing the beer out of some sort of vat. We then realized that banana beer was brewed in peoples homes and it was in essence the local moonshine.

Shortly the small hut was loaded with people shaking our hands and speaking  limited English. We exchanged the traditional African handshake and Obama bumps. Under less than hygenic conditions we sampled the sweet brew. Remembering Agent 99's admonition about sampling the local fare I limited my intake to just two small sips. BTW, it was pleasant tasting and in a way a similar experience. In no way did I feel threatened by these wonderful warm people living in squalid conditions on meager diets.

Afterward George took us to his Home to meet his family. What wonderful children. Angel 9, Abraham 6, Samuel 4, and Agatha 1 sang songs for us and one of them was the national anthem. BTW, Agatha didn't sing. George's Home is situated on a hill and the dwelling is a secured compound, fierce dogs are the security plus an 8-ft surrounding wall. He has owned the Home for 10 years and has slowly expanded it. He claims his family is growing faster than he can expand. Both George and his wife work so they are able to have two servants. All in all he has upclass housing compared to the average Ugandan.  

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In the SpyPics? today you will see the source of the Nile that begins on the north shores of Lake Victoria. This is where the Nile will make its journey to the Mediterranian Sea. It takes 4 months for the waters of the Nile to traverse its journey. That may not be quite right because the Aswan Dam built for Egypt by the Soviets holds the water back for miles. But you get the idea.

Another group of pictures shows our delegation attending a meeting of a village cooperative. We had a long discussion about their dire needs to make their farms more than a subsistence. A good many of the farmers were women and in fact the Chief was a woman. These Ugandans were very soft spoken  and kept  referring to the US where everyone and everything was perfect. I don't know very many Americans that could survive under the circumstances they are in. Their priority needs are credit, agronomic information, tillage equipment, storage facilities, and advice on how their organization should function. That about covers everything and one wonders how they get the job done. But they seem to survive and raise large families. Uganda has the highest fertility rate in the world with an average of 6.5 children per woman with average age of the population at 15 and a life expectancy of 46. AIDS is a very big problem and the farm associations regularly get tested, given information, and monthly supplies of condums.

Diet is generally chicken, fish, goat, or beef (poor quality) and peanuts for protein and rice, bananas, and white corn meal for carbohydrates. Then for cooking, seasoning, and source of fat they consume sunflower, peanut, and sesame oil. One of the pictures you will see today is the breakfast being consumed by our Country Director, George, made up of bananas and tripe cooked as a stew. At lunch I asked if I could give that a try but he said it is only eaten for breakfast.

I do find Ugandans to be quite interesting. It must be a haven for anthropolgists. The population is made up of several tribes all with different dialects though most speak Uganda and some English. Also, they have a slightly different appearance, i.e. people from the southeast appear different that the people in the west and the native language is entirely different. The British Empire ruled this country for decades. Since independence the Ugandans  have invested heavily in tea and sugar cane plantations. Commercial rose growers supply roses to the Netherlands where they are distributed throughout Europe. The Israelis invested in 3 large citrus orchards but abandoned them after the Idi Amin/hostage event.

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I have been postponing explaining one of our agribusiness development programs until my trusty partner, Agent 99, was able to download some of the pictures.  Since she posted them today in Spy Pics gallery, I will explain further.

When these countries gained independence, the new government dissolved the large corporate farms and distributed the land to the people in small plots, 2-3 acres. With this climate and soil conditions, it is possible that a good farmer can grow sufficient high value crops to make a good living for his/her family. However, there was little if any infrastructure to provide the farmer with technology, financing, crop inputs, or markets. So that is our job. 

Though it is a beginning we have a long way to go. The pictures you will see show agrodealers that we have helped estabilish. We find a village entrepreneur who can make a small investment in an input supply distributing point. Some examples are shown in the pictures. Our role is to provide that agrodealer with a matching grant to bolster his ability to serve the area farmers. We provide training, new technology, and   shelving for his store. Then we monitor his progress and I must say they have been rather successfu. The agrodealer supplies the farmer with inputs and agronomic training. We bolster that package with training in business, bookkeeping, and marketing.

Our objective is to raise the farmers out of a poverty trap into an income and wealth producing enterprise, i.e. a successful family farm.

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