We are sharing with you a series of travel logs written by ARI staff member Steven, who visited Africa in August.
On the sixth day, they had a busy day in Lusaka, looking for suitable candidates for the Rural Leaders Training Program in ARI!
They also visited the Japanese Embassy in Zambia.
Let’s get started on our trip to Africa!

【An African journey to visit ARI graduates, Day6】

A short tour of the EDF farm
This morning Geoffrey gave us a tour of the farm, starting with the compost, which is a good place to start. Good farming starts with healthy soil. He had two bokashi piles going. His father, John, has been using bokashi for years, but Geoffrey says they make it differently now. I didn’t ask how it was different!
The piggery was quiet with only a few swine and one new boar. They recently sold around 200 pigs because the cost of feed had gone too high. This is another effect of the drought. People are eating the corn bran which is usually reserved for livestock. Normally, they grind their own feed, but with no electricity and no corn, there was no choice but to buy. So, they decided to sell out and start over, which seemed like a wise financial decision to me. There were several rooms for fattening, and the delivery pens had a little corner area where newborn piglets could stay out of harm’s way of getting stepped on. When things are going well, they can produce most of the pig feed on the farm, but the corn de-huller (polisher), needs fixing in addition to the other problems mentioned above. After the corn is hulled, it is ground to make flour for nshima for the humans and the bran goes to the pigs and chickens.
The poultry house contains broilers and village chickens as well as an incubator, which is open for villagers to come and use to hatch their own baby chicks.
Their oil press is a big income generator (when there is no drought and load shedding). They normally make sunflower and soybean oil and can even make peanut oil. People from all around come to use the machine. Additionally, they have goats and gardens where one of their crops is super nutritious amaranth leaves. Judy is particularly proud of her orange trees, “because I like oranges.” Next to the oranges are John’s banana trees.

Bustling Lusaka
Today is a big day for recruitment, meeting several people and organizations in Lusaka. This is one of the important aims of our trip and I’m grateful for the chance to meet many new people today, to share about ARI.
As we headed out of the dirt roads of Kanakantapa, I got a few more tidbits from Judy. This settlement is named after the Kanakantapa River which flows through it and was planned and funded in 1988 by the ODA (official development assistance) of the Japanese government. It was part of a “go back to the land” initiative of the Zambian government to alleviate the problem of unemployed youth in the cities. Settlers were provided with land, tools and agricultural training. They also received military training, so they could police themselves, and the crime rate was low. Some original settlers still remain, but many have sold their plots. Still, the population continues to grow and is now at 20,000. The Japanese are no longer here, but their office compound remains and is used by the community. Next door is a clinic, built several years later. There is still no school.

On crossing a river, John pointed out a pump station built by the Japanese that was meant to irrigate a large area of farmland. But the same familiar story followed of, essentially, failure. I don’t know if they ever got it up and running, but presently it is not, and the pump was stolen. The gang of thieves were caught, after robbing computers from a school and sound equipment in a church. They now rest in prison, and the pump is recovered, but no one has bothered to hook it up yet. That should be the government’s job, according to everyone’s thinking. Talk then turned to the government, its inherent corruption and “all talk, no action!”

The car needed some work before our big journey across Zambia, so Kai, Judy and I were dropped off at the edge of town, while John and Belvin proceeded to a mechanic. Judy quickly loaded us into a taxi, and we were once again speeding along. Taxi, around here, means a minivan with a driver and a helper whistling out the window to attract potential riders. We alighted at Waterfalls Mall, very upscale and clean, just like in “rich” countries; probably the model of development and consumerism desired for the whole of Zambia. After some brief shopping we took another taxi to a restaurant on embassy row for the first of our meetings.

We spoke to a fellow called “Mr. Tomato” by his friends because of his success in growing tomatoes. When he works with farmers, he emphasizes profitability, and thus promotes more commercial farming techniques. I wasn’t sure how much he would be interested in ARI, or vice versa, but I strongly agree with his view that farmers should be able to make a decent living.

A chat with the Japanese ambassador
At 2:00 PM, we had an appointment with the Japanese ambassador. Judy wanted to be absolutely sure to be on time for this, as embassies, and Japanese embassies in particular, don’t tolerate tardiness! After the usual security checks at the entrance, we were met by Mr. Mori and a Zambian woman. They took us to a conference room and asked us a few questions before bringing in the ambassador, Mr. Takeuchi Kazuyuki. He was an older fellow who kindly gave an ear to Kai as he explained about ARI in Japanese. It was a great relief, that when he turned to address me, he did so in English. His questions were all related to the development of Zambia and one that challenged the ARI grassroots approach was as follows. 70% of the population of Zambia is involved in agriculture, but agriculture accounts for only 10% of GDP, so how can this nation develop? My inarticulate reply was something to the effect of, when people no longer need to worry about hunger, when their basic food needs are met, they can move toward the next step.

Well, we didn’t solve any world problems that afternoon, but it was a good chance to connect. ARI works with Japanese embassies all over the world to secure visas for our participants, and this kind of face-to-face relationship building goes a long way toward smoothing the process. We also gave Judy’s grant request for EDF a plug. Japanese embassies provide small amounts of funding for local initiatives and EDF has made it to the second stage with their proposal to build a residence for trainees. Judy explained that they want to do multi-day workshops as well as 2-to-3-week training sessions and for that, they need a place for the trainees to stay. They teach all kinds of topics, according to the needs of the community, such as organic farming, livestock rearing, sanitation and health, tailoring, food processing, machine and car maintenance, and many more.

More ARI recruiting…
After the embassy, we talked with a representative from the Methodist Church of Zambia, and this looked like the start of a nice relationship.

The last meeting was meant to be with a Women’s Fellowship at a church, but it was hijacked by the Church Moderator.
He and his secretary pelted us with all kinds of protocol and bureaucratic questions I can’t even remember the point of. There was little interest in learning about ARI itself. At the same time, we could get no information on the activities of the women because they were given no opportunity to speak. They literally sat in silence. At ARI I often hear how women are kept out of decision-making processes, but to see it happening so blatantly was a shock. Judy wanted us to meet these ladies because she said they are very active and energetic and would benefit a lot from ARI training. As she observed the meeting, she knew exactly what was happening and later told us that this guy is keeping women down! It is the goal of ARI each year that 50% of our class are women but combatting mentalities such as what we saw today greatly challenges our recruitment staff. In fact, we have achieved our desired ratio only once. We have been close many times, but we will always keep shooting for 50/50…or more!

The kindness of Zambians
Whew! With the day’s schedule all behind us, we walked to the bus stop to catch a bus back to Waterfalls Mall. There was a large crowd waiting and no buses in sight. And wait, where is Judy? Oh, there she is talking to someone in an old BMW. Hey, she is waving to us to come. This person is giving us a lift! Is this Lusaka style Uber? Or just another example of how Judy knows how to get things done! Susan, the kind car owner, took us all the way to the mall. There we met John and Belvin and took the freshly fixed up Land Rover home. What a day of experimental transport.

We found the house in complete darkness, and void of water, the result of load shedding and someone leaving a tap open on the farm and draining the water tank. But Lulu had prepared a delicious meal of “bush chicken,” known locally as Kwale, using a charcoal stove. See how hard it is to stop using charcoal? Imagine if your household didn’t even have electricity? How would you cook?
By the light of two battery powered lamps, we enjoyed our meal together. John and Judy told us that each year EDF has a Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration, just like at ARI. They invite the whole community and share food, dancing, and singing together!
With no water, there was no dishwashing, so we left that for the morning, banking on the electricity being on again by then.
Good night!


Written by Steven Cutting (Graduate Outreach Coordinator)
Travelling with Kai Shinoda (Admissions and Recruitment Coordinator)



Click here to read the series of articles

Vol.0 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Prologue】

Vol.1 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 1-2】 

Vol.2 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 3】

Vol.3 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 4】

Vol.4 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 5】

Vol.5 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 6】<== Now, you’re here

Vol.6 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 7】To Be Continued …