Back... Again

Back in the US of A

My gluteus maximus thanked me after more than 26 hours of continuous
use. Feels great to be home, but am starting to miss Swaz and my friends
there. The assignment has been completed for now and its time to come home.

However, it doesn't feel like a good-bye.. cause its not.

Almost two years ago, we set a list of objectives for moringa in
Swaziland. We're on the verge of completing all of them. We've got
government clearance, moringa trial plots around the country, steady
flow of seeds, training workshops for farmers, and the only one
partially incomplete is the development of moringa market for income
generation. That final task will be finished by May, the end of the
growing season.

Its not goodbye because moringa is only part of the food security and
nutrition solution. So whats going to happen now?

The moringa component is going to push forward. We're doing workshops
for a bunch of organizations and sourcing seeds for anybody who wants to
grow it. Over the next 3 months, we anticipate roughly 10,000 seeds will
passed along to farmers and children's homes just from Thokozane's
training sessions. We will help these farmers market excess moringa
powder and generate income for school fees, food, healthcare, and
whatever else the family needs.

The next pilot project is what we're calling an Anchor Farm headed by
our super-star farmer, Thokozane Khumalo.

Swaziland imports 50% of its food from South Africa. Why? The reasons
are combinations of macro reasons (water, inputs, labor) and micro
reasons (local politics, marketing difficulties, transportation,
knowledge). No matter what the reasons are, the solutions are going to
be community specific. There is not one solution that will fit all
communities, all regions.

These privately-owned Anchor Farms can provide the example, the
assistance, and the problem-solving skills to lead communities to
greater food production. Furthermore, empirical evidence shows that such
an Anchor Farm can be self-sustainable and highly profitable, which is
conducive future replication and scaling.

Our first Anchor Farm will have four functions; 1. moringa leaf
production for market, 2. demonstration farm for new crops and
techniques, 3.produce marketing for community collective volume, and 4.
regional nursery producing seedlings for gardeners and farmers.

Alright, time to rest...

Weekend Off!

Two weekends ago, Thokozane took me and a friend to a traditional wedding.

I've never watched Survivor, but if there was a wedding on that show
between the contestants, I suspect that it would be very similar. We
hiked up and down a steep mountain on a very hot day, chased some kids
through some woods, and finally made it to a teal homestead where the
wedding was to take place.

We were the special non-African guests that everybody looked at oddly...
"How did they get here?". I used to get annoyed, but the scrutiny is
part part of the deal of working here. There's just no getting around it.

I tried to mingle with the men and man-boys over shared buckets of
homemade Swazi brew, of which there was the orange and sorghum
varieties. The orange was more re-freshing fruit, less sour milk. Both
gave me diarrhea for the entire week.

The older guys all brought their knives in anticipation of the cow
slaughter. Well, I happened to have my buck knife with me. Apparently,
it wasn't up to muster; this guy, Sam, plainly said it was good for
apples only. As the cows were being herded into the kraal pen, Sam
sharpened my knife quickly and off we went.

Five cows went in the kraal, only three came out. The kraal is where all
the cows are kept at night. Around this kraal, pushing against the
fence, was the entirety of the wedding guests. Singing siSwati choral
songs, they (and I) watched two men inside the kraal slip a spear into
two cows. The sacrificed cows stood for a few minutes before coughing up
a bit of blood, lying down gently, and taking their last breaths.

I followed Thokozane and the other men into the kraal. We took apart the
cow like legos; hide, stomach, intestines, heart, liver, kidney, ribs,
legs, and so on. The whole process was accompanied by singing and took
no longer than 15 minutes right there in the kraal at the spot where the
cow laid down. I still have cow guts dried on my knife, never washing
that off.

The other cow was skinned, but left laying on top of the hide. The
tradition is for this cow to go to the kitchen in its entirety. One
family pulled it toward the kitchen, the other pulled it away. The
result was a game where the skinned dead cow bounced up and down 4 four
feet in the air as we all tugged and yanked and laughed. It would have
been gross if it wasn't so much fun.

After the slaughter, Thokozane led the party in traditional dancing.
Everybody knew the songs, everybody knew the dances. Folks would just
jump in and out. Kids and girls did the bulk of the saying. There was a
song where the chorus is just "rabies", as in the disease. I still need
to figure out what that song was really about.

Drunk men offered me 20 cows in exchange for my female friend. When I
said I would require at least 40, they inquired about any sisters back
in the US. My friend wouldn't play along beyond that. Joking aside, this
giving of cows is not a demeaning gesture as commonly thought. Because
the wife officially moves to the husband's home and brings all her
skills and abilities to the new home, the husband must provide something
to the wife's family as thanks and compensation.

The whole celebration lasted Saturday and Sunday. The third and final
and largest ceremony would take place later, sometimes weeks, sometimes
months. In that ceremony, guests would come in not only traditional
clothes but also with shields, spears, and clubs (nopkiris).

This was way more fun than American weddings :)

First Training Workshop

Whoof... the anxiety is over.

We just did our first moringa workshop for 52 guests in the Lowveld. The
Red Cross was holding a three day gardening training and commissioned us
to teach moringa cultivation and utilization on Wednesday afternoon. It
was a great deal for us getting moringa out to the communities; they
funded Thokozane's time, printing, materials, seeds, and even gave us a
venue.

The training was out near a place called Mpaka. The group was mostly
women. Why? Because the men go earn money in town, women take care of
the homestead. The women grow food for the family and care for the
children (which now typically includes orphans from extended family).
These women are aged between 25-45, some brought their babies with them.
Some even nursed their babies in the front row.

Thokozane told them how to grow moringa, how to use it. They asked so
many questions! All of it was in siSwati. I sat in the back, looking
dumb and hoping for the best. The worst was when everybody laughed.

"What? What? Was that a good laugh?"

After Thokozane spoke for a long time, everybody cheered and clapped. I
turned and asked one of the Red Cross people; somebody asked where they
could get seeds and Thokozane said that we would be providing everyone
with 10 seeds. Cheers all around!

Yeah yeah, everybody gets excited for free stuff. They also wanted to
buy more seeds however. A few of the women pressed for the sample powder
we brought along. They literally wouldn't let us leave with it. Of
course, we didn't want to start a trend of giving away our stock. The
going price is 60R that jar-full. I told her the price thinking she
would give... this old woman in this in classic old Swazi woman dress
and a mischevious smile just whips out 60R on the spot! What could I do?

We sold it to her and we're leaving another batch with a a Peace Corp
Volunteer for another woman from the group.

In this workshop, Thokozane just taught them how to grow moringa. In 4
months, once their trees are ready for first harvest, Thokozane will
return to teach them how to harvest, prune, and process it.

Quick!

Viral attack at one of the plots. They're going to cut it all back and
hope it hasn't infected the entire tree.

Has anybody seen anything like this?

Also had a viral attack on myself; runny nose, slight sore throat,
slight fever. Ruined the weekend, slow to recover.

Week 2

Alright, this is the end of week two (delayed due to internet
availability). What has happened?

I visited most of the sites and have pretty good updates to share. Won't
go into two much of the details reception has been excellent. At every
single site where the moringa powder has been shared with the community,
reception has been excellent. What do I mean by excellent? The folks
that have used it told me about that it just brought them back to life.
They say they were sick at home, couldn't eat, diarrhea, vomiting, and
so on. Then they got some of the powder and started taking it with
meals. After a couple weeks, the sickness went away. Yeah yeah, its
pretty subjective. They want more of the powder and they want to grow
it. And we will happily oblige. Of course, Im not saying its a miracle
cure or anything, but there is definitely a significant trend.

There are some folks at SIPA (Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority)
who are interested in moringa as a large-scale commercial venture. I am
also told that three top reps from the Swaziland section of the dominant
supermarket chain in southern Africa, Spar, is interested in carrying
the moringa powder as nutritional supplement. There is a high-end
organic and health foods store in town called The Thorny Bush. They
carried a small shipment of 250g units of moringa powder from our
partners at New Life Homes. It quickly sold out for 80R (10USD) each
pack. A very interesting note about this; most of the buyers were
Zimbabweans who knew it from back home. New Life Homes currently has
just the demo site with 150 trees producing leaves, but are preparing to
put in 100,000 tree dense orchard to meet the anticipated sales. There
is fair chance of later exporting it to the wealthy cities of South Africa.

What does this mean to our target clients, the rural Swazi farmer?
First, the natural information fall-out will reach into all of
Swaziland. Impala Development Services (us) is limited to getting the
moringa trees into the hands of local aid and development groups and
providing small workshops. We can't shout that loud. But, it seems that
we have shouted at some of the right people and the high-powered circles
are talking about it now. They bring the metaphorical artillery.
Everybody will know about it. Second, with the opening up of a market of
such scale, if mobilized and organized quickly, the small rural farmers
can become a significant producer. In addition to home use and
nutritional improvement, this would also mean income generation for many
many families.

I'm trying to not expect too much and not get too excited, but the scale
of interest is really beyond what I could have hoped for.

On a less exciting note, I talked to folks at NERCHA (National Emergency
Response Council for HIV/AIDS) about any interests in moringa. They
recognize the importance of nutrition, but, unfortunately, if they act
on moringa, it will instantly become "moringa & HIV", which is entirely
the wrong message. My hope with NERCHA is that at some point in the
future when moringa is better established in local knowledge, we can
offer special workshops to their networks.

Got an email from a professor of chemistry at the University of
Swaziland. Apparently, he just started working research on moringa's
flocculating (cleaning water) abilities with a Botswanan colleague. He
said he just couldn't find any moringa growing in Swaziland. I smiled a
big smile. "Well, Dr.Thwala, I have good news for you." I'm going to
help him find some seed cake (seed after pressed for oil) for his
protein analysis. Also, we're organizing an epidemiological study on
effect of moringa supplementation on health (disease incidence,
anthropometrics). . If you are a USF student, you can participate in the
Grand Challenge grant competition with Mrs.Jenn Peregoy (from USF Public
Health) and I.

Super busy week. Will have lots more updates.

Week 1

Today is Saturday and there's no field work scheduled for today. Just writing up the week's updates to send back and putting together essentially the business plan.

This past week has been spent visiting the demonstration sites, gathering data, and discussing future plans. I traveled with our excellent colleague, Thokozane. He was a knowledgeable farmer, jack-of-all-trades, a good person, and friend of the Poglitshes. After a year and a half working with us, he is now the moringa expert of Swaziland. He is in the process of marriage now; he told me that there are three different ceremonies that must be performed. These ceremonies can be done in a week or over years. His last ceremony is planned for September; he invited me, I will try blend in and document it for you.

 On monday I went out to visit Ruth and Rudy, a very rough 40 min ride from Mbabane. Ruth has been helping us with the moringa trees for the past one and a half years and without her, we would be failing miserably. We discussed how things have been and did some planning. Thokozane will be offering moringa cultivation workshops to rural community groups all over the country. We expect the first workshops to begin in mid-September for a number of Peace Corp volunteers. We will conduct this first series of workshops together in order to refine the message and get everything right; we want to deliver a strong message that moringa is a strong nutritional supplement, not some miracle drug. There was a study from a few months back concluding that 80% of Swazis consult with traditional healers. That is not to say that traditional healers are fakes, I am just saying there's a strong sense of herbal and natural remedies that may or may not be based on scientific evidence. Anyways, Thokozane will be giving these workshops independently and, hopefully, make a fair income from these training sessions. He has thirteen nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, and children to provide for on his homestead!

 In addition to the training sessions, we're going to try to enter the informal / grey market to generate income the rural farmers. There are no jobs out in the bush and the migration of men to the cities have really stressed the traditional family and support structure. If we can set up this market in town (maybe even beyond Swaz), we'll be able to put some money in  the pockets of these farmers. Typically, these farmers are women with many nieces, nephews, and children to feed; HIV has orphaned 80,000 children in Swaziland. The money can be used to pay for school fees, buy other food, pay for healthcare, and whatever else they feel are important. We're going to try to get Kiva funding to help Thokozane establish this small business. If you don't know what Kiva is, just take a look at their website (I think its Kiva.org)

 On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we visited a few other sites. At one of the sites, local women have been adding the moringa to their regular diets and have given up positive reports. We recorded three of the interviews and I would love to post it for you guys to see, but they were conducted by Thokozane totally in siSwati. Our friend Bongi reported that the farmers understand the importance of nutrition and are keen to grow moringa for themselves. In the northern mid-veld, they have integrated moringa into their training program (funded by Garden Africa from the UK) and its been a hit. People have been buying the moringa powder from our sites faster than they can produce it and at exorbitant prices (400R[50USD] for 2 Kg). If people are willing to pay for it, then it means they value it, which means they feel it is important for their health.

Although we've gotten updates from only half of the sites, the demand seems to be there; people want to grow this for themselves.

The pictures are; Ruth talking with Thokozane, following a woman to some homesteads to do the interviews, and dinner at Vusumnotfo with Kathy Gau, Bongi (from Moya Center, one of our partners), Thokozane, and myself. The camera did something strange where I cannot extract some of the photos, but next update I should have posted pictures of the moringa plots!

 

Settling Down

Today, I met up with my friend Samkeliso. He's kindly offered a couch in his rather well furnished apartment right outside Mbabane, the capital city. This part of town is called Makholokholo, Last year, Abhi, Alex, and I passed it daily on the way back to our house in Estibeni, just a quarter mile down the road. Sam's apartment is better than my place in Tampa; he has a big flat screen tv, sound system with standing speakers, dvd player, satellite channels, matching couch and love seat, and a stylish coffee table. Makholokholo is Swazi upper middle class. I've found a place to live for a while.

 

Now, work.

 

In the morning, I had breakfast with Thokozane and a new partner, the Rehmeyers from Tambankulu. Thokozane was giving them plans for a moringa solar drier. We had a very nice breakfast and chatted about the Rehmeyers first harvest and future plans. They will be providing moringa powder for the community as well as training and assisting in growing. Thokozane told me about a friend who had been sick; vomiting, inability to keep down food, couldn't go to work, and bedridden. Thokozane brought some moringa powder to him and he drank it with morning tea. Two weeks later, he's up and going back to work. He even met with Thokozane in town and asked where he could get more! I know, I know... the context is unclear, its only one incidence, its probably exaggerated, etc. etc. But its not the only incidence, this has been happening many times throughout this previous year. Even if its exaggerated, these anecdotal results still suggest significant effectiveness.

 

After breakfast, I visited a few other Swazi friends at their offices. Some have received promotions to positions with aid / development agencies; NERCHA, World Vision, and WFP. They're going to connect me with the right people to discuss moringa. Its  such a huge change from the previous year when I made cold calls into these monolithic groups and usually got blown off. With the support of our partners and all our previous contacts, I can hit the ground running.

 

 

Was at dinner with  a few friends. One of them ordered a fajita. The server came to tell her that they were out of tortilla wraps, but it was okay, cause they would just give her a side of rice and it would be the exact same. That made me smile. Im not belittling the server, why should he know anything about mexican food anyways? It was just a revealing and funny event at the meeting of cultures.

 

Next week, Thokozane and I are headed out to visit all our partners and discuss with them the next stage of the project. They have already integrated moringa into their normal programs but have wanted to expand the outreach. Ill be taking plenty of pictures! Abhi, Alex, and I left Swaziland without any trees, just seeds and plans. Now, the fruits of the labor!

 One of the pictures is of the place where I'm staying; my bed the couch, my work desk the coffee table. Another is the view out the front door. It is a small 4 unit apartment complex with a resident rooster and hen. Finally, back on the kombis riding around town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Joburg

Just got into Joburg a few hours ago. Looks the same, feels the same.
Same smells, same sounds as a year ago. Rooibos tea, boiling water, the
unique African english accent, fuzzy TV signals, nearly antique
computers. Im even remembering some of my limited Zulu vocabulary! I can
hardly believe that Im back.

The BazBus (safe travel) doesn't go to Swaziland until Saturday, so Im
going to the Joburg bus rank tomo to catch a minibus and hope I don't
get mugged! Seriously, it shouldn't be a problem; don't worry!

Will update again when get to Swaz.

2nd Round!

Its been a year and a month since I was last in Swaziland. We left the moringa project with Thokozane and everything has gone wonderfully well; the moringa trees are growing at all the sites, more groups are interested in growing it, and folks are developing a liking to the moringa leaf powder. I could not have asked for more.

Tomorrow at 5 pm, Im departing for Swaziland again; Tampa to Atlanta to arrive in Johannesburg 5 pm local time Wednesday. The year has passed so quickly! When Im working Swaz, I miss going to class. When Im in class, I miss working in Swaz. This time, Ill be working alone; Abhi and Alex won't be joining me (go check out their new project : www.fractureme.com).

Ill be taking lots of pictures and videos and providing detailed reports of the new objectives and progress. You can sign up for email updates through the little widget on the side. Im sad to leave my classes, friends, and family. Im calm because Ive already traveled this route before and know what to expect. Im nervous from the unknowns and the anxiety of the mission. Its time again to cross my fingers and jump!

Moringa Update!

Some farmers have already began adding the moringa leaves to their
family's diets. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it is indeed
significantly improving their health, especially those that are "sick".
A woman who was so physically wasted by disease that she could not get
out of the house is now back on the farm working and the lesions on her
mouth has gone away.

The trees themselves are growing well in all the regions, even in the
higher altitude farms. There has been some problems with pests and
fungus but has been brought under control. Several of our partners are
building moringa solar driers, one of them based on our design. Leaf
production is about ready.

Here are some awesome photos of the moringa trees and some farmers
working with it.

Our next stage is in the works!