20 June 2009

We leave for the Luanda airport in a few minutes, but I've finally managed a usable Internet connection for a few minutes at least. Pictures and all the stories we have to tell will have to wait for when we get to London tomorrow morning, although time permitting we might be able to post from Johannesburg, when we change planes there this evening.

We'll all well, tummy trouble not withstanding. Kristin Pires and I drove from Huambo to Luanda yesterday -- a great trip through 600 kilometers of spectacular scenery. Nina Clancy, and Steve and Dustin Koobatian flew back, and had some time to do a little shopping.

Our fellow Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Luanda were with us the entire way. They are, of course, taking the lead on implementing the project for Rotary here in District 9350, and they are as excited about it as we are, if not more so. May, many thanks to

President Manuel Correia
President Elect Manuel de Sousa
President Nominate Arlete de Sousa
Rotarian Rosalino Neto
Rotarian Florinda Carneiro

We have to leave early for the airport this morning. It's a 9:00 am check-in for a 2:30 pm flight -- that tells you a lot about some of the challenges of working in and getting around Angola. But the challenges are more than justified by the benefits, and more importantly the results.

Here's a quick recap of our time in Huambo:

Wednesday (17/06/09)

Meeting with Ex.ª Senhora Vice Governor Lotii Nolika.

Visit Demonstration Area for “Best Practices” at Dango - training for Rotary community leaders. It's located next to a new agricultural school, built by the Chinese, who are very active here.

Visit Caala warehouse for Rotary fertilizer. The fertilizer inventory checked out, and we saw how they manage thier inventory controls and distribution process. We also learned there, and later on as well, that fertilzer is gold in Angola.

Meeting with a women's group at Cariamamo – seed banks and rural credit.

Field visit toSr Ambrosio, Treasurer of the Seed Multipliers Club at Chilela - potato seed production and warehouse (Ekunha municipality). This was one one of a couple seed warehouses for the project. Its potato seed, which requires special handling, and it looked good.

Thursday (18/06/09)

Visit potato trading and varieties at the Chinguar market. It's an active and vibrant market, with a variety of goods and agricultural produce on offer. We also saw a modern refridgerated warehouse, next to railroad tracks that are scheduled to become active next year.

Meeting with the Representative of the Institute for Agrarian Development and visit potato planting by the seed bank at Cantão 4. The timing for our trip was perfect, and it was honestly coincidental, but you take your luck where you find it. The Rotary seed and fertilizer distribution is just starting, and we saw one of the 25 local agricultural associations that we're working with begin to plant their field.

Visit seed bank at the community of Cangala. We met with the leadership of another agricultural association that Rotary is working with.

Visit Rotary beneficiary community at “Quinze”, in Bailundo. This association will receive seed and fertilizer in a few weeks. Right now, they're running controlled experiments with the two potato varieties we're distributing, confirming that the varieties work in their soil, determining which one to use, and experimenting with different application levels of fertilizer to determine the optimum amount. It looked to me like it was right out of the Uuniversity of California Agricultural Extension handbook.

Friday (19/06/09)

Visit the Cooperative Agrocalenga Caála – Womens Credit Group – Rotary impact on final beneficiaries. You hear about microcredit and microfinance, but you don't really appreciate it until you see it in action. A "solidarity group" made up of a couple dozen women are taking small loans, building their own "bank", and making more loans. Some of the money borrowed goes to seed and fertilizer, some of it goes to small businesses, like making and selling clothes.

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