The Corn Project.

Last week we spent the whole week looking for the land for a humanitarian corn project. The man that is funding the project is a very good business man, but he is a humanitarian at heart. He is willing to spend a lot of money on the project (by a lot I mean millions) and all the profits will go back to the communities. We will use the money to renovate their churches, schools, houses, etc. The corn will also be providing food security to the people in the communities. Which is well needed in Mozambique.

We drove around for hours looking for the right land to use. We had a map from the government officials to follow, but it was not a well written map. The people who wrote the map could hardly read the map themselves. I think everyone was confused at one point or another. It was frustrating at times, but we found the right piece of land, finally. There is so much land up for grabs in these areas of Mozambique, they are begging for people to invest in the land.

Looking at the map

Looking for the right land

The area on the map where the land is.
No he's not flipping you off.

It is going to be a very long and frustrating process to get this project started. We are going to have to work with government officials and tribal people to get the land. We have to do soil samples. We have to get contracts, licenses, permits, etc. We have to hire people to manage the land. We have to hire the right people to clear out the irrigation systems that are already established from 40 years earlier, plus build new irrigation systems. We have to have regular farm workers. Theres a lot to do. I don't even know all the steps, we've never started a farm in Africa, but we will find out the steps soon. I never thought we would become farmers. I went to school to be a nurse, not a farmer! I'm excited to learn though.

The land that we are planning to use is about 1,000 hectares, (1 hectare is 10,0000 square meters) We will plant only 250 hectares to start out with as a trial. If the first cycle of crops shows to be successful, we will plant the remaining of the hectares. Eventually we are looking to invest in more land to plant 5,000 hectares. That, my friend, is a lot of corn.

Who better to get the process started than the one and only Alex Spencer? No one is better. He is the only person for the job. The investor asked him (and me since were connected) to stay until the corn project is up, running and stable. So when are we going to come back to Utah? Who knows? We don't even know. I guess we'll see. It'll be an adventure.

Some village people walking after collecting wood.
The canal for the land is on the left.

Some local boys. They don't speak Portugues. Hard to communicate.
Some one gave them Big Red gum, you should have seen their faces, they were not expecting it to burn their mouths!

The sky was so big this day. It was amazingly beautiful.

Tchau.