Congo Update 8 April 2013

Greeting from the Congo

Last weekend was a zoo.  Four containers of seed showed up in Lekana and we had to move them to the farm in these small trailers connected to a tractor as the semi’s that showed up with the seed could never make it down that 20 km farm road.  Truck drivers seam the same everywhere, they act like the world is going to end if they aren’t unloaded right away, and if you get them unloaded they are sleeping in town the next day.  There was one really nasty truck driver yelling up a storm to get unloaded first.  I know how to deal with truck drivers, I said we’ll unload you last and ignored him. 

Then on Monday the minister of Agriculture showed up on the farm with the governor, two film crews and an entourage of about 50 people.  He was there to check up on our progress and publicize his program of mechanized agriculture which we are implementing.  I was on Congo TV with my bad french.  People have come up to me saying they saw me on TV, good thing I didn’t have to watch it.  It went well.  We had disks running, then a fertilizer spreader and finally two potato planters. 

Loading the fertilizer spreader by hand.  I made a three part blend mixed in the spreader.

These little spreaders are pretty hard to calibrate and since driving in a straight line is a new ability for the tractor drivers - not the best application.

Potato planting is going pretty good.  A little slow as it rains almost every pm here now and we have top stop, but the loam soil is nice that we can get going the next day around 9 am after a bit of morning sun.  We have 15 potato varieties here to try.  I thought it was a great idea in the US to try a lot this first year and pick the best for the future, but in practice I signed myself up for a lot of work keeping them all straight.  Some of the tag with the variety name on the bag also fell off, so I have to open the bag and guess the variety.  All the seed is on the farm and we planted a little more than half the seed now.

The potato seed organized by lot in piles under a refugee tent.  Needed somewhere to keep them out of the rain.

Disinfecting the equipment before use to cut down on diseases

 Loading the potato planter by hand

And planting potatoes 
The first plantings already have nice healthy sprouts and roots.  The weeds are also coming well, especially a sedge that is going to be a challenge. 

Keep having a little morning meeting to organize people and a little training session.  Thanks Google translate I have a script ready.  Congo went from hoes to now tractors with no animal traction in between like most places.  So I have to train in so many basic things like how to use a trailer jack.  But that’s why I’m here.  People here have small garden plots for manioc, sweet potatoes and peanuts for there starches and then forage for native fruits.  The garden plots are in a different place every year so shifting agriculture, but there is plenty of land so far.  The women seam to do most of this farming and foraging.  Down south the women bring thing in in baskets on their backs, but up north here they carry tings all on their heads balancing wild loads.

Women off to work in the fields with their hoe on their head and baby on their back


The men either seam to do nothing or hunt for whatever they can kill.  They do raise some goats, pigs and chickens, but mostly to sell for money.  Congo is mostly Christian so it doesn’t have that weird separation of men and women like some, but not all Islamic countries.  The women really hold their own with the men taking.  Maybe they do the farming since someone has to be responsible to feed the kids.  I’m not sure yet though.

The guy with some stork I think someone shot nearby.  Some protein I guess. 
Anyway as my french improves I’ll be more aware of what’s going on around me besides what I can see.

One more photo