America

I Love America

dissappear

This place is lawless.

Most of the time, that is to my advantage.

-Alex

umas fotos

O grande Mussane

Magude's Entrance

Shaun and Subi, our farmers. He used to herd Rhinos and then one day he got stepped on, that's why he uses his cane with a wharthog tusk. He's a true african.

Boys herding cattle on the Limpopo

An old well we found along the limpopo

Spring roll w/ Chicken Sautee

Chel that was so fun!

cjc you're more beautiful than the sea

Xai Xai, bairro

Guadana nao pode faltar

remember flicking the sugar? haha

Streets of Durban- there was a shooting in front of our hotel, typical

Boi de Mocambique

I learned something interesting today:

During the war, every head of cattle was stolen by troops, and eventually killed or sold.

(something I already knew was that elephants, lions, zebras, giraffes, etc were all killed as target practice by the rebels fighting in the civil war)

So, since each head of cattle was stolen because of the war, there was a 10 year period where there were very very few nomadic people with cattle in Gaza, Mozambique (a southern most Providence)

What effect this had, was that many of the former cattle herders who had cattle breeding, grazing, husbandry and creation knowledge no longer had cows. So let's fast forward- to this day the few people who have cows are learning the trade, and doing so very slowly.

Yesterday an American who is a trained veterinarian in the US told me that if they would just implement the practice of castration, the wealth of these nomadic cattle herders could quadruple! It is crazy how delicate some things are, and how I really don't see how deep the roots of Mozambique's civil war are.

pegar no pé

A few nights back Fernando and I were coming back from Magude to Maputo late on a Friday night, and so we decided to stop by our egg ranch in Marracuene to see if everything was in order and maybe surprise the guards and catch them sleeping.

When we get the our first egg house, there is no guard. We have $5,000 worth of chickens in a locked egg house and no guard nearby. We go to the second egg house, no guard. We go to the third, and Matusse, our ever-so-faithful guard was there. So we called an emergency meeting with our employees that live near in houses we've provided for them.

So I told them I'd stay overnight and be the guard, that really got them going saying things like "No! The boss can't do that! That's a shame!" so they put their heads together and asked around (everyone here talks and knows everything about one another's lives) and and as luck would have it, we knew that both guards were at a party and abandoned their shift.

I got in the car with the employees and we drove to the party. Only one of the guards was there and he came running to the car in his suit and dress shirt, caught in the very act. We took him back to his post and we chewed his head off and his salary will be discounted this month.

The best part was, when he came to the car at the party he told me: "Boss, I'm sick." I laughed.

I always have to play parent with employees here. It seems like I can never give a task and expect it to be done without poking them with a stick and making them do that. Which reminds me I really do have to go do some of that right now.

Chellie- come to Magude

i write this from a run down reverberated hotel (if you can call it that) in magude mozambique. ive never been here before, and don't feel like i ever want to be here again. all i hear is the sound o dripping water, this place feels like a prison. outside i hear music from a hand held radio set that is battery powered and blasts a mixture of static and arrebenta music. men drinking on the road, passing by yelling and acting like boys. i woke up several times last night to mosquitos buzzing around my face and strange sounds. a little card board/wood door is what protected me from the outside world.

this morning this prison turned into a paradise when i plugged in my internet "clique" usb modem. 3g technology is so prevalent in this world that anywhere there is one cell phone tower, there is internet! and better than 56k. it turned into a paradise because i called my dear chellie and heard her angelic soothing loving gentle voice that calmed my soul. 3 days and no shower because all the water here is either rusty or salty. my teeth feel like they're lined with a layer of enamel.

now i hear a choir passing by, singing chants in Machangana, it is so heavenly, the harmonys and melodies and happy people clapping and singing a song that has been passed down from generation to generation probably for centuries, never written. It is so beautiful , men, women singing in unity. this place begins to feel a bit more like home except im missing my other half.

Brasil buys Mozambique and I can't

Chelsea and I have labored constantly in trying to acquire 5,000 hectares of land here in Mozambique. It is not easy, yesterday I spoke with the VP of "Agribuntu", a successful agricultural company here in Mozambique (financed by the EU) and he told me that what I was trying to do was "impossible". We have tribal elements, socio-cultural problems, corruption, bureaucracy, government regulations, bad exchange rates, high cost of living, and many other barriers in front of us. It has been a battle. Recently we have scrapped our 3 months work that we have spent in acquiring one piece of property and are now after another in Magude. Today I opened the newspaper and read "Mozambique gives 6,000,000 hectares to Brasil for agricultural development." I assumed that it was an error because the Mozambican currency used to have an extra 3 zero's on it, then in the late 90's they chopped off the 3 zero's so that math could be better done, therefore many mozambicans call 6,000 "six million". When I read the story my jaw dropped. Brasil had bought their way into the 6,000,000 hectares. (that is 2/3 the size of portugal!). As one Brasilian put it "To every Mozambican problem, there is a Brazilian solution." The truth is- Mozambique is being colonized again, this time it is for the same reason as the first time, but done in a different fashion. Anyway, I will move forward and try to get my meager 1000-5000 hectares. I am against feelings of jealousy or animosity when one sees another's success, but I'm doing my best not to be bitter.

by the way- what is crazy is my country spends $500,000,000 USD per year in this country (USAID, Millenium Challenge Account, etc etc) and I can't get one square meter of land, while the smooth suave's build a 50,000,000 airport for the country and get their 6,000,000 hectares. the US needs to get on the bandwagon- ethical aproveitamento.