The making of the Mpanga Site

Aside from being a bumpy 3 hour drive from Kigali (the capital city), having no electricity or running water, having to use a latrine for a potty, swarms of malaria-carrying mosquitoes and the occasional Cape Buffalo stampede, the site at Mpanga is turning out to be more than we could have imagined. However, it took a little work to get it ready to be farmed.

Justin called with great excitement from Mpanga about this time last year reporting that a brand new Cat 963D Highlift bulldozer had been delivered for clearing land, but they were having trouble getting it started. The next day they discovered the problem...there was no alternator. Someone had stolen it. This, as we are learning, is common in Rwanda. After countless calls between Rwanda and the States and a trip to Fenton MO, a replacement alternator was purchased and included in my checked bags bound for Africa along with 200 lbs of additional tools and parts. By now I'm used to fetching parts when things break down around the farm, but this takes "parts run" to a whole new level.




Justin, Rich and Ben trying to figure out how to install the alternator



A second bulldozer arriving at the site

Here is the progression of land preparation on field 1 at the Mpanga site.

Finally being planted

Corn starting to come up.
 The mountains you can see in the background of this picture are Tanzania.

We've heard a lot of criticism regarding the clearing of trees for the purposes of agriculture so let me just address that here. The best rebuttal I've heard for this kind of criticism actually came from a Ugandan native named Grace who was working with a group of American college students doing a study on the neighboring village. She was among a small group of us watching as Justin started pushing over a big, beautiful tree in the middle of field 2. The other American and I were somewhat horrified to see it going down and were cringing as it's roots started to surface. The African woman looked at us and simply said, "my people are starving, plant more trees somewhere else."

One problem we've noticed in Rwanda is that the hillsides have largely been cleared for farming which is leading to significant amounts of erosion. Another member of our team is working on an Agra-forestry project which will focus on reforestation of the hillsides leaving the valleys and flat lands, like the one we are working on, available for food production.

So, bulldozers and excavators have become a regular part of our machinery line-up and, truthfully, I'm thankful that my husband occasionally has a chance to operate them. Demolition of this magnitude is evidently very therapeutic and much cheaper than the therapy it would require to survive in our home with a very strong-willed 3 year old, 18 month old twins, and a somewhat snarky wife.

As of right now, the team hasn't discovered any missing alternators or crucial parts that were overlooked in the packing process, but a girl can hope, right?