Some people have sent me messages asking what I am doing over here and I thought that I would explain my project as simply as possible and also what my small part is in the larger picture.
The project is to move farmers and farmer based organisations (FBOs) from dependency based aid to development based aid. We are working with FBOs to teach them good farmer practices (i.e.. planting in straight lines, using certified seeds, using one seed per hole, proper weeding, using fertilizer, etc), providing grants, which they have to pay a portion of, for ploughing and harrowing their fields and also for seeds. This is different from what other organizations do here which is to just hand out cash and not do any follow up to see if the money was used for the intended purpose. Our goal is to encourage behavior change and to provide the skills they need to be successful.
We work with the FBOs to provide sound foundation in addition to working with them to see if to see if they will be able to form co-ops. If they are interested in forming co-ops we work with them to complete the process and develop business plans and become successful co-ops.
Here farming is not necessarily seen as a business but as a way to sustain their lives. The government understands that improving the farming sector will help make the country food secure and increase the income for the farmers and the entire value chain.
The missing links here are numerous (lack of tractors, unwillingness to use fertilizers, lack of certified seeds, transportation, etc) but education and the feeling that traders are trying to take advantage of the farmers and the lack of market is the largest problem.
The marketing and education on how to cost your product is my main farmer focused project. The farmers do not currently understand why the traders who buy their products have to make a profit, the farmers think that they should be able to sell their product for what they buy it for in the market. They have not heard the phrase we use in America "Farmers sell at wholesale and buy at retail."
In addition to working with the farmers I am in charge of the office for the state of East Equatorial South Sudan. I get to attend all of the meetings with the state and county government relating to food security and agriculture. I also have direct report of 5 people in my office and 27 people in the 3 counties. A lot of what I do is coordination of projects and people. It is challenging and fun and exciting when I get to work with the farmers.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Traveling on Bumpy Muddy Dirt Roads
So last week was my first trip back to Juba since I arrived 7 weeks ago. My town of Torit is located about 80km from Juba (as the crow flies) so one would think that going back and forth to the capital of South Sudan would be reasonably easy, oh you would be wrong!
We are currently somewhere in the middle of the first rainy season and since the paved roads are either in capital of Juba or the one "highway" which runs from the Uganda border to Juba, I travel on red, clay dirt roads. When I first saw the red dirt roads I thought of the Brooks & Dunn song but their dirt roads were in much better condition. When I first made the trip there had not been any rain in about 3 weeks so the roads were in pretty good conditions. Yes there were major gullies and they were bumpy but they were passable now is a different story.
The area from Torit to Juba has been getting rain/downpours at least 3 days a week for the last month so while it has helped the farmers, the road conditions have changed.
Last week I spent almost all of the week on these roads. Monday I went to Juba (5 hrs), Wednesday I came back to Torit (5hrs), and Friday I went to Obbo and then came back to Torit (6hrs). On the way back from Obbo we were driving in the rain and driving through huge puddles of standing mud. It is a good thing that the vehicles that we use are designed to go through the water because several times we had water over the door jams and I am sure into the engine area.
These trucks take a lot of abuse and so does my body due to the bumps. I have bruises from the seat belt keeping me in the seat when we hit a bump. I am trying to think of something to put on the seat belt to keep it from digging into my skin. The drivers keep telling me to gain weight so I won't feel the bumps as much, that is not an option. If anyone as any ideas as to how to avoid the bruises please pass it along.
We are currently somewhere in the middle of the first rainy season and since the paved roads are either in capital of Juba or the one "highway" which runs from the Uganda border to Juba, I travel on red, clay dirt roads. When I first saw the red dirt roads I thought of the Brooks & Dunn song but their dirt roads were in much better condition. When I first made the trip there had not been any rain in about 3 weeks so the roads were in pretty good conditions. Yes there were major gullies and they were bumpy but they were passable now is a different story.
The area from Torit to Juba has been getting rain/downpours at least 3 days a week for the last month so while it has helped the farmers, the road conditions have changed.
Last week I spent almost all of the week on these roads. Monday I went to Juba (5 hrs), Wednesday I came back to Torit (5hrs), and Friday I went to Obbo and then came back to Torit (6hrs). On the way back from Obbo we were driving in the rain and driving through huge puddles of standing mud. It is a good thing that the vehicles that we use are designed to go through the water because several times we had water over the door jams and I am sure into the engine area.
These trucks take a lot of abuse and so does my body due to the bumps. I have bruises from the seat belt keeping me in the seat when we hit a bump. I am trying to think of something to put on the seat belt to keep it from digging into my skin. The drivers keep telling me to gain weight so I won't feel the bumps as much, that is not an option. If anyone as any ideas as to how to avoid the bruises please pass it along.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Interesting week. . . meeting with the Governor, Land mine stop, inspecting cassava plants and drinks with UN staff
Well this has been an interesting week.
Monday started with an early morning phone call saying that the working group that I sit in on once a month has been requested to meet with the Governor of East Equatorial (where I live). Of course the call came in at 7:45am and the meeting was to take place in 1 hour. Now I am not saying that my town is big, because it is not, but I had just gotten out of the shower and I had not had my breakfast, so I had to hurry to get ready for work and this meeting that I knew nothing about. Great way to start my 3rd week in country!
The meeting went fine and it turned out that there was nothing for my organization to do, the work that the Governor wanted done was in a part of the state where we don't work.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful: meetings, email discussions, etc, etc. By Thursday I was tired of being in the office so I decided to go out into the field to meet with the farmers.
What was supposed to be a quick 1/2 day trip turned into a whole day excursion, but then this is Africa. We started to drive to Kudo and about 30 minutes into our trip we are stopped by a rope across the road and some UN vehicles. Seeing the UN vehicles is nothing new here, I think that more than half the cars on the road are UN. When we get to the rope we see that it the land mine removal group and that they had just put up the rope. We now had to wait 45 minutes for them to finish what they were doing on the sides of the road before we could continue. They close the roads down when they do these projects so that if they miss one of the mines no one driving by will be injured. Since I had experience with road trips in Africa I knew to bring a book along with me, so during the land mine stop I just opened up the book and read.
We finally got to one of the farm areas and started to distribute the seeds we brought with us. When I got out of the car and met with the farms they thought that it was interesting/strange that a woman was the boss. The female farmers started laughing at me and then when they were told that I was the boss, their eyes got really big and they wanted introductions. The children were different story, they all ran from me. I am not sure that they had ever seen a white person before and I was scary to them.
I have pictures from the trip I will try to load this weekend.
Thursday was a long day of distributing seeds but worthwhile to get a chance to see where the farmers work and how they clear the land.
Friday was another day in the field, but this time we were looking at the fields of cassava that could be purchased. We were on one of our farmers lands looking to buy his cassava stalks to provide to other farmers for the next planting season. We had to determine how many acres were available and ensure that the plants were disease free.
Of course on the way to the field we got a flat tire, no trip is uneventful. A trip that was to take 2 hours once again took all day.
I got back to the office on Friday and was looking for something different to do, rather than sit at the hotel for the evening. So some of the other aide workers and I went over to the UN compound and had drinks with the UN MISS workers. It was a good night. It is hard to describe the night. The bar is an open cabana with cold beer, flags from the countries that are working on the compound and lots of trailers. The guys were great and the stories were interesting. Most of the people that were there work with the Policing unit so they thought that it was interesting that I worked with farmers. It was nice to sit and talk with them but I know that my body could not keep up with them over a long period of time. Lets just say that the Bosnia's can drink and smoke more than anyone I have seen!
Today, Saturday, was the first day that I walked around the town by myself. It was a short day in town but I went to the market to see what I could get and I will be in good shape when I finally move out of the hotel and into my house. The interesting thing is that being in the market was the only time since I have been here that I have been called "white person" or one of the two local words for it. It has been nice being in town and not being called that.
Hopefully next week will be uneventful but since this is South Sudan I am not counting on it. I hope that everyone at home is starting to enjoy the beginnings of summer. I will be thinking of you while I am hotter than you know where.
Monday started with an early morning phone call saying that the working group that I sit in on once a month has been requested to meet with the Governor of East Equatorial (where I live). Of course the call came in at 7:45am and the meeting was to take place in 1 hour. Now I am not saying that my town is big, because it is not, but I had just gotten out of the shower and I had not had my breakfast, so I had to hurry to get ready for work and this meeting that I knew nothing about. Great way to start my 3rd week in country!
The meeting went fine and it turned out that there was nothing for my organization to do, the work that the Governor wanted done was in a part of the state where we don't work.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful: meetings, email discussions, etc, etc. By Thursday I was tired of being in the office so I decided to go out into the field to meet with the farmers.
What was supposed to be a quick 1/2 day trip turned into a whole day excursion, but then this is Africa. We started to drive to Kudo and about 30 minutes into our trip we are stopped by a rope across the road and some UN vehicles. Seeing the UN vehicles is nothing new here, I think that more than half the cars on the road are UN. When we get to the rope we see that it the land mine removal group and that they had just put up the rope. We now had to wait 45 minutes for them to finish what they were doing on the sides of the road before we could continue. They close the roads down when they do these projects so that if they miss one of the mines no one driving by will be injured. Since I had experience with road trips in Africa I knew to bring a book along with me, so during the land mine stop I just opened up the book and read.
We finally got to one of the farm areas and started to distribute the seeds we brought with us. When I got out of the car and met with the farms they thought that it was interesting/strange that a woman was the boss. The female farmers started laughing at me and then when they were told that I was the boss, their eyes got really big and they wanted introductions. The children were different story, they all ran from me. I am not sure that they had ever seen a white person before and I was scary to them.
I have pictures from the trip I will try to load this weekend.
Thursday was a long day of distributing seeds but worthwhile to get a chance to see where the farmers work and how they clear the land.
Friday was another day in the field, but this time we were looking at the fields of cassava that could be purchased. We were on one of our farmers lands looking to buy his cassava stalks to provide to other farmers for the next planting season. We had to determine how many acres were available and ensure that the plants were disease free.
Of course on the way to the field we got a flat tire, no trip is uneventful. A trip that was to take 2 hours once again took all day.
I got back to the office on Friday and was looking for something different to do, rather than sit at the hotel for the evening. So some of the other aide workers and I went over to the UN compound and had drinks with the UN MISS workers. It was a good night. It is hard to describe the night. The bar is an open cabana with cold beer, flags from the countries that are working on the compound and lots of trailers. The guys were great and the stories were interesting. Most of the people that were there work with the Policing unit so they thought that it was interesting that I worked with farmers. It was nice to sit and talk with them but I know that my body could not keep up with them over a long period of time. Lets just say that the Bosnia's can drink and smoke more than anyone I have seen!
Today, Saturday, was the first day that I walked around the town by myself. It was a short day in town but I went to the market to see what I could get and I will be in good shape when I finally move out of the hotel and into my house. The interesting thing is that being in the market was the only time since I have been here that I have been called "white person" or one of the two local words for it. It has been nice being in town and not being called that.
Hopefully next week will be uneventful but since this is South Sudan I am not counting on it. I hope that everyone at home is starting to enjoy the beginnings of summer. I will be thinking of you while I am hotter than you know where.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
A Few Pictures
Well just a short note to let you know that I posted a few pictures of my town. They are the same ones that I put on Facebook but I know that not all of you use FB.
A quick explaination of the pictures:
The donkey cart is how some people get river water. . . . don't ask. My water is clean this isn't.
The spice plate is salt and hot pepper and is on every table when I go out to eat.
The round plate of food . . . well the red bowl is a lentil dish I used to like until it got me sick on Friday and the other dish is some kind of beef soup. It tastes better than it looks. The bread is great!
The men on motocycles are boda-boda drivers and they are the local taxis here.
The round clay building with the straw roof is called a Tokors (probably spelled it wrong) but it is the traditional house)
I have a video that I will try to load at some point this week.
A quick explaination of the pictures:
The donkey cart is how some people get river water. . . . don't ask. My water is clean this isn't.
The spice plate is salt and hot pepper and is on every table when I go out to eat.
The round plate of food . . . well the red bowl is a lentil dish I used to like until it got me sick on Friday and the other dish is some kind of beef soup. It tastes better than it looks. The bread is great!
The men on motocycles are boda-boda drivers and they are the local taxis here.
The round clay building with the straw roof is called a Tokors (probably spelled it wrong) but it is the traditional house)
I have a video that I will try to load at some point this week.
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