Training Center Plan + Tanga + 10 days left!

Well, time is winding down and some of our most critical decisions are quickly approaching. Thankfully, we feel that we have several good people in the mix, and now we just need to arrange the chess pieces for optimal performance over the next year.

To quickly catch ya’ll up on the past week. On Tuesday I met with a local processing group called Safina. The group consists of 12 members from the Korogwe community, mostly older women, and was formed with support from SIDO (Small Industry Development Organization) and the Korogwe Town Council. Using a room in one of the member’s houses, the group uses 1 common-sized blender and scale to make 3 types of sauces: Garlic Sauce, Fruit Sauce (Jam), and Pickled Pepper Sauce. Operating on 3 days of training sponsored by the town council, the group produces their goods using recipes and packaging materials taken from SIDO. They’re hope is to market their goods in retail locations around Korogwe town and the district at large. However, before they can enter the true retail market, they need to be certified by the Bureau of Standards to ensure that product is safe for general consumption. This is a capital problem, because it requires additional funds to purchase a dedicated processing room, the sanitation materials (hats, gloves, etc), and the training necessary to produce in mass. In order, to get this capital the group either needs to sell some of its product in informal markets, receive a grant from the government, or seek out external funding. I visited their project to see what it takes to start a small-group processing project in Korogwe. Someday, we hope to start processing the goods we produce.

Wednesday and Thursday, I met with John Mtambo and others to continue planning for the St. John’s Organic Agriculture Training center. We hosted a few brainstorming sessions and continued the proposal writing.

On Friday, I met with Joseph Desideri of 4H Tanzania. At first, I didn’t connect 4H to the group I had come to associate with the Puyallup Fair in Washington, but after a short discussion, it became obvious that they were engaged in the same type of agricultural and community affairs – except that they don’t try to produce 700lb pumpkins just for fun. But they do train young children to raise gardens and they promote animal husbandry and other such activities in the community. We hope that we can partner with their gardening projects that are already in place once we establish our training center.

On Saturday, I was invited the Korogwe Town Council economist, Renatus, to attend a village sanitation training session at KwaKombo, 10km outside of Korogwe. I arrived at the town council at 9am, expecting to hop in the landcruiser and leave around 9:30am -- normally things just tend to run late. Those of you who have been to Africa, or know government, would understand. Having lived in Spain, which has a similar cultural reputation for being 15-30min late to every meeting, I am accustomed to waiting. However, at 11:30am, we still had not left. I can’t complain too much, because I did get a chance to meet Grace Mbaruku, the head economist for the council, and Louis Mkembo, the solicitor/lawyer for the council. Grace was very kind, and she made sure to offer me sweets every 15 minutes to make sure that I wasn’t too upset about their tardiness. After eating 11 sweets, we were ready to leave!

At KwaKombo, I watched the training session led by the sanitation consultant hired by the town council. Though it was in Swahili, I picked up a few phrases here and there. To appreciate the training in sanitation techniques, which focused around the new toilets that were going to be installed by engineers the following week (yesterday), one must understand the starting point of the training: “What is a toilet?” All kidding aside, this was a very serious question that took almost 45min to answer. In rural villages, the concept of ‘toilet’ as a sanitary way to dispose of waste to ensure that food and water supplies don’t become contaminated was a completely foreign concept. It’s easy to understand that waste smells, but it takes a deeper level of knowledge to realize that waste doesn’t just disappear when it goes down the hole. It goes somewhere, and if one isn’t careful, it could end up in the water supply. In these regions that use shallow wells for water, it is critical that toilets are designed to prevent contaminant infiltration into the groundwater. Thus, the consultant was teaching the community about these dangers and the plan to install two new eco-toilets that trap the waste and ensure its safe disposal.

While learning about toilets was entertaining, I was mostly interested in seeing how the local governments train the rural villagers. The meeting took place in a grade school classroom. The consultant stood in front and used paper taped to a chalkboard to write down thoughts and to make illustrations. Sodas, notepads, and pens were handed out to everyone in attendance, around 30 total villagers. The opening session lasted around 2 hours before breaking for lunch.

In many ways, the training was similar to something you would see in the states. Yes, the material was different, but the techniques and the treatment of the attendees were similar. The only problem is there are so many villages to visit and train, and very few of these training sessions actually happen due to the cost of training. But everyone has to start somewhere.

On the same day, during the training session, I met Mathias Mutayoba, of the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency). He is working with refugees from Somolia who have fled to Tanzania, about 3000 on his settlement. Mathias manages the settlement, tries to find the refugees employment, and works with the government to provide the refugees temporary citizenship documents. We discussed the possibility of hiring some of his refugees in the future. We will see how it goes.


During the weekend, we hopped on a coastal and headed for Tanga. We spent one day and one night exploring the city and eating the great food. To make sure that no is under wrong impression that we are living lives of luxury over here, I’ve attached a couple of pictures to show how we traveled and where we stayed. Hope you enjoy!




On Monday, I met with John Mntambo to set our immediate goals:

1. Create a management structure for the farm, complete with an org chart, job descriptions, and suggested people for each position
2. Create a 6-12month land utilization and action plan showing when and what we’ll plant, harvest, and sell in the markets
3. Create a Farm Operating Estimate to establish the capital needed to prepare and operate the farm over the next year

That night, I met with Bishop Baji to discuss establishing an NGO for training center and leasing the Kwakiliga farm from the diocese. He was on board with the plan and committed to helping us acquire the information needed to move forward. With that said, I should explain here exactly what we are thinking to do with this project. Below is a quick summary of where we are going (Disclaimer: this is not a finalized plan and should not be looked at as our definite course of action):

1. We want to establish an NGO called the St. John’s Organic Agriculture Training Center
2. The center will be guided by the vision of a Board of Trustees using an executive committee chaired by the farm executive/farm manager to implement the board’s vision.
3. For the first year, the training center will exist just as a model farm. We need to get the farm cleared, ploughed, harrowed, and planted, beginning with just 5-10 acres of the total 40 acre plot. The remaining acres will most likely be share-cropped with the local villagers, offering loan inputs to get the farmers started and having them pay the loans back after harvest.
4. Next summer, we will begin phase II, expanding the crop production and animal husbandry to include short training workshops to begin equipping farmers with the knowledge they need to make educated decisions about their farming (how much do they need to plant to ensure Food Security for their families, is there a market nearby for their Cash Crops, how to keep track of their costs and sales, how to use the best farming practices to increase their yields, etc).
5. All of our teaching will focus on organic, minimally energy intensive methods that utilize resources locally available and within the economic class of the farmers.
6. We will eventually start to organize farmers to equip them with the inputs they need to produce high yielding crops, to transport their goods to market, and to sell their crops in markets with a high demand for their goods.

Most of this vision is the creation of our local consultants such as John Mtambo, Father Komba, Yakub, and others including individuals, NGO’s and government entities. We have added our ideas, linked people with ideas to people with resources (ie. John to Canon Edward [idea for farm to farm with no idea]), and organized the proposal. In the end, this project will be a creation of local people understanding their local needs and realizing the solutions to those needs. We as The Korogwe Project are bringing in ideas to make those solutions more efficient and effective. We are supporting this project fully with information capacity and minimally with financial capacity.

Above: John Mtambo and Humphrey (being vetted for farm manager)

I should say that creating an agricultural training center in Tanzania, or in the Tanga region for that matter, is not a novel idea. But there is a demand for training, and the best incentive for farmers to get training, is to see the possibilities first hand. And we do believe that we are bringing some unique ideas to the table:

1. Training in Organic Farming Methods – several studies, including one conducted by the United Nations, have found that organic farming is profitable, less energy intensive, more environmentally friendly, and more drought resistant that conventional farming in Africa – since the reports on the benefits of organic farming have just come out, there are no agricultural training institutions in Tanzania dedicated to teaching organic farming methods (there is a track in sustainable farming available at Sokoine University in Morogoro, but that’s it)
2. No inputs (seeds, tractors, methods, organic fertilizers, etc) handed out without prior training – in order for a farmer to receive loan inputs, he/she must first complete the required training at the center
3. Training from beginning to end – we won’t just train how to plant the crops, but we will train farmers to think first about which crops to plant based on Food Security, market demand, and the amount of risk they want to take on, we will teach them how to collect data, to do basic accounting, and how to use those practices in conjunction with best organic farming practices (BOFPs) to best manage their production; and finally, we will help link them to markets with a demand for their product

It shall be a great adventure!

Above: looking at pedal powered water pumps

Recently, in order to show our appreciation for the Diocese’s generosity in providing us housing free of charge during our stay, we have dedicated some of our time and financial resources to fixing their submersible pump that has been operating at half capacity during the last few months. Due to budget constraints, the Diocese has not been able to service its pump, its one source of water for the entire compound, which includes St. Raphael’s hospital. Because the pump capacity has been diminishing, the Diocese has been forced to shut off water to some areas for 2-3 days at a time. These droughts have become more frequent in the last few weeks. Thus, we saw an opportunity to give back to the Diocese, and the community that depends on the water, by having their pump fixed. Many of you back home who donated to the project deserve the thanks for fixing their water supply. It will be remembered as a very kind, very tangible gift to the every day lives of our friends and fellow villagers. You can see some of the pictures below.



Please continue to think and pray about our work. In the next 9 days we have a lot to accomplish. We are currently interviewing possible farm managers to oversee the cultivation of our farm, we’re establishing management protocols, and we’re still compiling our long-term proposal for the training center. At the diocese, we’re installing a rainwater catch to store water coming off of the roof of our house, and we’re fixing the submersible water pump. Everyday is very busy. We will need a lot of support for everything to come together before we leave. But we are confident and excited about the direction everything is going.

Thanks for following along and take care,

Jesse