Motorcars and machines

Last week was one of my most challenging yet. All of our projects are up and going now and that means my mind needs to be in 5, 6, 7, or 8 places all at once, usually starting soon after I wake up and have my morning coffee.

We have 175,000 pineapples planted and growing in Newton and by the end of the week we should reach a total of 300,000 pineapples planted including the land in Matindi. Our chickens are growing fast and eating a lot of food and this weekend we will open them up to the entire chicken coop. The okra, corn, and sweet potatoes are growing and well and we will start harvesting them soon. Irrigation and well drilling starts this week hopefully.

Anyways on to the title of this blog…

In addition to all of the things listed above I had a few things go bad last week that well, an inconvenience. On our way to Matindi, 20 guys in tow in the trailer behind the car, the front of the car began to vibrate…and then vibrate more. Well luckily I was turning off the highway at that point and there was no more problems the whole way into Matindi to the farm. But soon we were getting back on the highway me and Jesi were on our way across town after a short stop where she is doing research, and I had half a mind to do some looking under the car to see if I could spot the problem. It turns out I could spot the problem, the front driveshaft was about to fall out…Well that ended plans for the day to go into town and I drove the car home slowly shaking the whole way back…what was I supposed to do call a tow truck? lol

I made it back safely and pulled out the front driveshaft and had a mechanic come by and take the old U-Joint into town to find a new one. He was back within a couple hours and he helped me put it all back together in less than four hours! All told that little problem cost me 35 dollars! I couldn’t get a U-joint back home for that…So that one wasn’t too bad.

The next day however tested my mechanical ability. I was just plowing along on about 5 acres enjoying the scenery on the John Deere Tractor I am borrowing from an NGO here and all at once it died…Yep just shut off. What to do? I mean it’s a diesel tractor right? They don’t just turn off while working. It had half a tank, no leaks, cranked strong, I was at a loss. I decided to pull the fuel filter and it was full of water, sand and dirt. I found the problem, or did I? I went to Willamette and got a new fuel filter and headed back to the farm, I might mention it takes about 25 minutes each way. I put the new filter on, primed the pump, and nothing. Still wouldn’t start. So what could I do at this point? Call my Dad, even in Africa some things don’t change when I get a problem over my head.

I called Dad just like I would have if I was at home on the farm and we decided that it probably air locked. It’s a 65hp tractor so it’s a good size engine to get running again. He walked me through all of the steps as I called him back after trying each one at a time since it is too costly to stay on the phone the whole time. I ended up going back to town to get more diesel to top off the tank for more fuel pressure to get it flowing again. By the time I made it back this time to the tractor it was past dark out in the African bush, but me and Titus went back because I really didn’t want to leave the tractor out in the field. We then tried the steps dad gave me once more: prime, pump, bleed, repeat,  and it worked! I ended up missing dinner plans with some good food and better people, but I got the tractor back home. What would I do without my Dad? 8,000 miles away and he is still helping me get through tough times whenever I need help. 

College Days

This weekend I went back to Njalla to take Solomon to college and bring back a full carload of Jesi’s research supplies. The drive is pretty nice as the road is smooth all except for the last 7 miles of terrible road that leads to the college campus; it is like a stress test that new vehicles have to go through…The road which should be straight leading from Freetown to Njala and Bo should be for all economical reasons, but no not this one. For all intensive political reasons this roads winds and turns every mile reaching out to every village along the way. You may see this a good thing to cross every village, but it seems to me that all the cars just go through them at 70mph blowing all of their rice off the road. You see the village people put rice on the side of the road to dry after harvesting.

Anyways on to college, Solo and I pulled into campus and gave Oxford a call to see where he was so we could meet up and met him by one of the dorms and here he came running down the road to greet us. He was very happy to see me and Solomon and as we were catching up I noticed everyone who walked by greeting Oxford and saluting him saying hello sir. You see he is actually the biggest man on campus! He took his work out weights with him and has started a work out group in the mornings and everyone on his block tries to work out with him. So Oxford is living life and having a good time, this week while going to his agriculture class the teacher called him out of the group of students and pointed out his Excellency in dressing and preparation for farm class, so much so he called other professors over to see his gear and his Oklahoma Cowboy boots! The professor then gave him 5000Le for dressing properly and took him in his car and showed him around the agriculture projects, helped him with his chemistry and gave him some advice to succeed on campus. He is the man on Campus.

After meeting with him we called Precious and had her come with us to hang out at Jesi’s house. Precious left after a short while to go to class and cook Jesi and I dinner, and she did and it was the best groundnut stew I have had since I have been here, she and her roommates can cook! We were scheduled next to go the freshman dance, but here in Africa dances don’t start till 11 and people don’t show up till 1 or 2 for the real party. We set our alarms to go, but when I woke up it was pouring rain and decided to just call it a night. Because of the rain the dance really didn’t happen since everyone would get soaked going to it.

Solomon working hard on the pineapple farm

That morning I saw Oxford running by the window at 7:30am with a 4 egg omelet in hand for me to eat for breakfast! The omelet was good, real good and I ate it with some sweet bread. You see over the past couple months I would usually make me and Oxford breakfast and coffee each morning so this morning was payback. After breakfast we packed up all of Jesi’s research supplies and I had to head back for Waterloo because the Vet was coming with vaccinations for the chickens. But first I went over and wished Solomon good luck at school and adjusting to a new life. “Goodbyes for now” are tough for Solomon and when we have left in the past he will just disappear when our teams leave. I gave him a hug and went to get in the car and he met me on the passenger side to tell me thank you again for bringing him and his things to the campus for him and helping him raise the funds for school, I told him he was welcome and he quickly said I love you and closed the door. These young students are the future of this country and will be the ones who make it a better place. Please be praying for all of our students from wellington as they begin their new lives at school here. 

Reel Problems

We should have had 4. But through a series of misfortunes we came back with one. The first time the Reel wouldn’t reel and it got off. The second time the Reel would reel, but the line began stretching and snapped. The third time, now using a different reel, it broke as soon as the line began whizzing off at 50mph. But this time I snatched line and gripped the pole and held on while our guide grabbed the line and began reeling it in the black man way.

Well here is what happened. While packing in the U.S. I packed some fishing rod and reels to do some fishing here in SL. I got what I thought would be decent equipment for doing some light saltwater fishing, like one would do along the Gulf of Mexico. Well that is not really the type of fishing I did today. Today we went big game fishing. By the grace of God we were able to get one on the boat. The morning started off kind of slow with John, Pepe, and I doing some trolling for about an hour before our first strike happened. The fish hit Pepe’s bait and this was the first time Pepe, a Chilean missionary with Willamette, had ever gone fishing and his third time on a boat. So when the rod tried to yank out of his hands he held on, but didn’t know how to reel. He passed it on to John, but then the reel would turn, maybe it needed grease, or the fish was to big. Well that one got off.

The next one hit hard with same series as before but then the reel was passed on to me with a monster fish on the line. It was to much for the rig, while trying to reel it looked like the reel itself was going to snap of the pole. In less than a minute of fighting the line was stretching and fraying apart, it snapped. In hindsight we should have loosened the drag and fought the fish for an hour, but hey I haven’t big game fished before.

So after that we took John back to the shore so he could do some puking, he was sea sick. We were in a 16 foot boat made out of 1x12’s and 2x4’s with a 15hp engine in 4-5 foot waves, 3 miles off the coast. So there was good reason to be sea sick.

On our way back out to the fishing grounds Pepe hooked another one using a reel we borrowed from a fisherman and the anti-reverse was not on when a big barracuda struck the hook and reel went out of control and that is when I snagged the line and stopped the fish. I passed the line to the guide was calling for it and he began reeling it in one pull at a time… once the fish got close it fought harder and he waited till it got tired and pulled it closer. The water was really clear so it became apparent while the fish was still 15 or so feet away that is was a 4 foot barracuda. Once we got it to the boat the guide hooked it in the side with a pole with a big hook attached to the end. He pulled it up against the side of the boat and instead of pulling it on in he reached for a club which was preceded by him beating it ruthlessly in the head until it was finished. Then pulled it on board and after half an hour of untangling line we were on our way.

That was the biggest event of the day, I had one more hit later on in the day, but it instantly snapped the steel leader instead of my braided line!

We switched gears and tossed the anchor out and caught some smaller lady fish using small fish for bait. After that we headed for shore and Tommy my friend at the beach cut the Barracuda in half and made nice steaks out of the meat and I went for a swim and then headed home.

Once I got home I took out 2 of the fish steaks and prepared them with Olive oil, fresh garlic and onions, added some beach styling seasoning packed for by dad, salt and pepper and let it soak while I cleaned up. I fired up my stove and put those 1inch fillets in the pan and let them cook for 4 minutes on each side and took them out, heated up some rice and ate the best meal I have made here so far. As usual Titus was skeptical of my cooking, but after one bite he leaned over and pushed the door shut and said so sweet. 

Traveling in Africa

Sunday morning I was preparing for a trip to Makeni and then to Njalla to take Gabriel, Precious and Oxford to college. The night before I put a roof rack on the top of my car because I figured we would need the cargo area since I was taking all of their things plus all of Jesi’s research supplies back from Jui for her. I made it to Wellington by 10:30am Sunday morning to begin packing all of the things on board and securely fastening them with good ratchet straps to avoid any trouble with the police saying my load was not good. By Noon we had everything loaded, packed, and strapped down ready for the best roads, or is it worst roads? That Sierra Leone could throw at us.

Church let out by 1pm and after chasing down a bag of rice we were on our way to Makeni. As any proper road trip in Africa should, we had bags in the front with me and Oxford, bags in the middle on top of Precious, Aminata, Gabriel and Deborah. Aminata wanted to tag along and Deborah is a fellow Oklahoman working at the Orphanage.

The car was absolutely loaded and the only retail space that remained was on the Hood, but thankfully we didn’t have to use it. On our way from Freetown to Makeni there is a police check point with signs portraying Skulls and cross bones on them…No problem right? Well the police officer insisted that our load was improperly fastened and that we should pull over to the side for an inspection, but after a staring competition between Oxford, me and the policeman he waived us on. I really wanted to get out and make him try to pull just one thing off the roof, but I didn’t want to cause a scene or get locked up.

After that it was smooth sailing all the way to Makeni where we dropped Deborah, Aminata, and Gabriel off and headed for Njalla. There are two options from Makeni to go one you return on the road you came back to the first round about, then head that way (150+) miles or you can take a short cut that is about 35 miles of non paved road then its only 30 miles to Njalla. As everyone knows I took the short cut…Well 3+ hours later we made it to the other side, you see the road was bad, real bad. It was like a road you would have to pay to drive on in Oklahoma, because it is an off road 4x4 rock crawling mud bogging fun fest! Water only came to the hood once and it caused quite a scene because we had a crowd of non believers standing by because there were other stuck vehicles in sight. They were yelling to use low gear as I entered the pit, but I insisted we were okay and then wham! The their was mud on the hood. I preceded to put the car in the “wide open” position and mud was flying in every which way, of course the windows were down in the process, and we came out the other side no problems at all! When we came out a gave a loud Heyyyy! And the crowd was pleased. The only option at that point was to turn around and go back through 25 miles of that obstacle course of a road.

I told Oxford this would be a day he will never forget and we can talk about years down the line as this was his trip to college and it turned into a real African Adventure even for him. We passed through many villages would had to think me and Oxford were big time oil investors or something of the like. We were both sharply dressed, him past me as he was wearing a suit top and I was in a nice button up shirt, both sporting the nicest shades around.

That night we got everything unloaded at school for Precious and Oxford and found their rooms. I stayed the night at Jesi’s house and the next morning I went to find Oxford and Precious to say our goodbyes and I was on my way back to work. I was difficult leaving my main man and Operations Manager at College, but I know it is for the best. 

My Vision

My Vision in life and for my development plans in Sierra Leone are quickly becoming a reality as I see the goals I have written down on paper and dreamed about over the past months and years that are now real projects and accomplishments.

 The vision for my life has been a real change in the past two years marked with big milestones of things I have done, for example, Committing my Life to Christ and getting Baptized, losing eighty five pounds, running a Marathon, Graduating from OSU at the same time as my big Sister ;-) (I hope you’re reading this Sister!) And moving to Sierra Leone to start and maintain Agribusinesses focusing on pineapple, poultry and vegetable production. And like my goals that have come and gone I am now seeing my new goals coming to life and into production. By the end of the week we will have 80,000 pineapple plants in the ground and 100 chickens in our chicken coop at Newsteps. We also have about an acre of vegetables growing like corn, beans, okra, sweet potatoes and ground nuts that are all doing very well and I enjoy checking on them every day to see how much they are growing.  

I have been thinking about my vision in life a lot since I made it here nearly two months ago now and how much I have been able to accomplish and my goals to accomplish more in the future. Today at church the message from Reverend Hassan was about visionary and stationary minds and the differences between the two. They just finished a bible study about Nehemiah and his vision for Jerusalem so it made me think of Nehemiah while he was preaching on the subject and about what a Visionary Nehemiah was. I think I too am a visionary not to compare myself to Nehemiah though! But I have a vision and each day I live a little bit more of it and I hope that I am able to change and make lives better for people less fortunate than I.

Oxford is heading too college next Sunday and I am going to drive him out to Njalla and help him take his belongings out there. After Church we were sharing a bowl of Black eyed beans and rice talking about the future and how things are going to change when he moves there and I said “I am sure you are going to miss being here every Sunday [at Wellington] and getting to see all the boys and girls in the orphanage” Oxford is the most popular guy on the block there. And he said “I think life is a lot like water…water that isn't moving or going forward will turn stagnant and spoil, well think about water that is moving quickly through a stream, it usually isn't stagnant or spoiled, I think life’s the same way, yea Ill miss everyone here but God has given me the opportunity to move forward so I am going to”. I wish this man the best and I will do everything in my ability to help him earn a degree in Agriculture Economics  and to be successful with IAC as my operations manager. 

It's Pineapple Time!

Hey everyone I hope all is well I guess it’s been a week now since I posted, I've been busy. Since the container came in it has been full speed ahead with the farming at Newton and in Matindi Village. The stumps have created a delay though…Were chopping them up one at time with axes. I found some really good military axes from the U.S., broke them and got out the good Axes I brought with me in the container, broke them too. Me and Oxford went into town and found a piece well pipe six feet long and headed for a welding shop to cut and fix the axe heads on the pipe. We cut the pipe into three pieces, beat the wood out of the axe heads and had the pipe bent and welded on. These aren’t going to break anytime soon. Its hard work, but more people show up to work everyday.

We have completely stumped about 3 acres with 3 more cleared ready for stumping at Newton. I have about 20 people working for me there currently doing the clearing and stumping. There is probably another 20 working at Matindi Village right now re clearing 10 acres for planting, the grass here grows fast and in the last month it has grown 2-3 feet, if only grandpa could bring his hay equipment over here he would be in heaven.

I went out to Africa Felix juice today for a meeting about the pineapples suckers we have ordered and looked at the pineapples that they currently have planted in the area. The meeting went well and the first load of 35,000 suckers will get here tonight. That’s enough for 2 acres of land and the land cultivation will begin on Monday with a 55hp John Deere…The land at Newton was a jungle and the ground cover is to thick for the tillers to work effectively especially since there are so many tree roots. We are still going to use them at Matindi since the land is in much better shape.

So I brought a trailer in the container not knowing how much I would use it and in this past week it has been unhooked from the land rover for a few hours…It is a great people mover! The first day we loaded up 11 in all and headed to work and it was unpleasant so I said lets hook that trailer up and you guys can ride in it instead, they agreed of course there is a lot more action happening in the trailer than in the back of a car. This way all of the tools stay back there and the muddy feet.

Tomorrow morning all the guys are loading up into the car and trailer and we are going to the beach! The beach is really the highlight of my week. It is for sure a time to wind down from the week and get ready for the next one. Most of Wellington Orphanage will be going to tomorrow since there are some white people here from Pennsylvania and Canada and they are taking a bus load of kids and I am bringing all of the guys at my site for a day of fun in the sun! 

Well it began four months ago and now, it is finished.

Let me tell you where it all began.

It was a hot Wednesday afternoon in Stillwater at about 3:30pm as I was walking down the sidewalk on my way to pay some bills when I got a call from a fellow in Tulsa who was calling to confirm that he had what I needed. The price was a little high, but it was what I needed. 7000lbs of steel shaped like a rectangle with doors on one end and about 40ft in length, “I’ll Take it” I said and we went over the terms of delivery.

Four months have passed now since that container showed up at dads shop to be loaded and packed full of my future and about three months since it left that shop, and about a month since it was supposed to be at my compound in Sierra Leone…

Well after all the delays I headed to the port on Thursday to pick it up pretty early in the morning because I wanted get a good start so there would be plenty of time to unpack the car in the Key and have it out to my site before dark. We made it to the key to find that well the container had not been scanned yet at 11am and by 2 it would be ready for us, we waited at wellington until 4pm and decided today wasn’t the day and on the way down the hill we snapped a tie rod in Johns car…So after we decided it would take time to find the parts they needed we headed back using public transport instead.

That brings us to yesterday when we were actually supposed to get the container. Same story we headed to the port early, ended up in traffic for over an hour and made it to the port at  11:30am. John came with us, us being Jesi, Oxford, David and Titus, and we found the container opened it up and well……everything was just as I left it three months ago when I closed it up. We unpacked the car and had it closed up by 12:30pm and the waiting began for the paperwork on the car and container were finished up, which happened at about 7pm and we left the port in my Landrover! With me driving back through Freetown after dark in the rain…Driving here is just a little bit different.

Oxford stayed with the container and the truck which broke down in the line to leave at about 9pm and he ended up getting here at about 1am and we decided beforehand to unload it at first light. So this morning the container actually made it inside the compound and we had it unpacked, unloaded, offloaded, reloaded, done. It was finished.

So I am waiting on my Sierra Leone plates that I will get Monday and then me, Oxford, and Jesi are heading to Njalla to take Jesi and all of her belongings back that she has bought in Freetown in the past couple weeks for her projects.

I am heading up to Wellington in the morning for a special church service where all of the kids will be performing for us, and then I am going to the beach.