Another great day today, which started at our agri service centre at Rumphi. We’re experimenting with different varieties of tomatoes and different growing techniques and the fruit is looking great. In open fields, farmers are only getting 4kgs of tomatoes per plant: we are aiming for 10KGS for the women using our greenhouses but it looks like we will even exceed that. More fruit = more money = more kids in school and better nutrition for the family.
This afternoon we were at Tapukwa to see the progress with construction of our hydro power, irrigation and water treatment scheme. I have been frustrated at how slowly things have been progressing but after we climbed the hill to the site of the various water tanks, I realised just how hard it has been to get every brick, every gallon of water and every bag of sand and cement up the hill.
Things are not entirely peaceful in Malawi just now because of disputes about the recent election results. Police are predicting that a million Malawians will march through Mzuzu tomorrow so we decided to get out of town for a couple of days. This is not our fight and not our politics so we have moved to Nkhata Bay, beside Lake Malawi, and will work from here. People are angry with their politicians and there is tension in the air: one person said that he wished they had honest politicians “like you have in the UK”. I kept quiet.
So the weather forecast for Mzuzu tomorrow is, sunny with a moderate risk of tear gas.
On a lighter note, I bought a herd of elephants (100 of them) here at the lakeside and they will be making an appearance this Autumn at Guild meetings up and down the country
Kevin