Pierre, Bengt, Yngve and Christoffer

I woke up at 03.00 a.m. After a shower, porridge and morning prayer, my son Aron brought me to Bernt’s place in Borås, where we all were supposed to gather. Hugo came with a small bus to take us to the Landvetter airport outside Gothenburg. But Christoffer did not show up at the gathering spot. Bernt had called him but there was no one answering, only voicemail. We had to leave Borås without him since we needed to be at Landvetter at 06.00. Bernt tried to reach him a couple of times without any success. Christoffer had vanished without a trace. Aron went home with knowing that we had failed to get in touch with him. Back home, Aron and Kerstin started the work of getting hold of someone who could get in touch with Christoffer. Through a paper note from the garbage, and via Facebook, they managed to find his brother and he, in turn, found Christoffer sound asleep in his bed. Christoffer got a sudden awakening at 05:55. With great haste (the police did not even have the speed and the cameras did not catch him before they were already passed), Christoffer arrived at check-in two minutes before it would have closed. Good detective work and a rapid transport had solved the obstacle of oversleeping. Christoffer had set his alarm clock to wake him up at the right time, but he had turned it off in his sleep. You should be particularly careful not turn off the alarm in your sleep when you can miss a Congo trip. After all, we were togetheer on the plane and everything was fine.

I write these lines in Brussels, where we have a two hour wait for the plane to Kinshasa. When I look around I notice that our companions are becoming darker. We need to get used to the fact that we are now in the minority.

The 7.5h trip to Kinshasa went according to the schedule. A very comfortable ride with refreshments, coffee and food at regular intervals. We used the time for sleeping, discussions and reading. To our surprise, the temperature is not that high right now in Kinshasa, around 25 degrees Celsius, comfortable for a Northerner. Pierre and Yapeco picked us up at the airport in the police car and took us to Nzo Binati. Before we got into our rooms, Yapeco said a prayer for God’s protection and blessings over our weeks in Congo. A good and popular Congolese tradition. The married couple were assigned one room and the rest of us including Yapeco got to share another room. Yapeco and Ing-Marie went out to buy some food and Michel, one of the staff here at Nzo Binati, cooked supper for us. Grilled chicken and bread with water or Coca-Cola.

Tomorrow Friday we’re off to Congo Kinshasa. Preparations have more or less been going on for a few months, the last few weeks have been more intense and now, our bags are packed. Baggage allowance is two bags, max 23 kg each plus hand luggage. We are five people travelling. Bengt & Ing-Marie Bygård Håkanson are coming along, mostly as tourists. They are with us for two weeks and then they will continue to Brazzaville and some other places in the country. Christopher Jacobsson will meet with young people and teach them judo in Luozi. There is already a group in the Mawanda church practicing this sport. Christoffer will probably stay all of the four weeks in Luozi. We have carefully checked the with the top management of the CEC Church about this specific activitiy. Bernt Sköld and I will be engaged in the activities of the entrepreneurs and some related work. See our itinerary under “About Us“. Lennart Friden and Lars-Ola Rydberg will join us in two weeks from now, and will stay in Matadi. They will mainly do follow-up work with the entrepreneurs. Everything seems to have fallen into place and we are well prepared for the trip. This morning I talked with Yapeco Bakala and chatted with Nsimba Andersson. The situation seemed to be under control. I hope to return daily with fresh reports from Congo so that you who read our blog can follow our doings in Congo. The translations into English and French can take some time, but be patient, they will come. See you soon again.

6

Drawing on the hotel floor

Yapeco will now continue to build on his hotel in Matadi. His goal is to have it completed in October next year. It is beautifully situated overlooking the River Congo. It will have eight guest rooms and rooms for conferences.

Dialendua in his shop for shoes and clothes

Here you can see pictures of the activities January 11 team works with. It’s about coffee shop and food service, sales of shoes and clothing. Food business, wholesale business of meat and fish, pharmacy and car sales. They received their training in January 2011 and February 2012 and received their loan March 10  2012. They borrowed a total of $ 38 900 and will begin their repayment on 30 August. Yapeco has taken the pictures.

Packing the container

Since May, Bernt worked hard with the collection of used items to the Congo. Most work Bernt has had to sort out and collect the tires. Over 350 Used but approved for use in Sweden was now in stock at Olsfors. Not approved can not be exported.

We use the Mission Covenant Church depot in Olsfors to store our collected material, and we packed the container even there, a very good place to store and pack on.

At 8 o’clock on Tuesday July 17, the container came. At 9 o’clock, we started packing. Bernt had learned to braid tires to minimize the export of air. In the spaces we packed clothes but unfortunately we had not enough clothes to fill all the voids. We hope to have more clothes to the next container to use all the spaces. We found out that it is best to pack clothes in the ordinary carrier bags, the pack fits well with the tires, but it is also possible to pack in boxes, they’re better protected that way.

There were over 200 packages of clothing, computers, bikes, television sets, radios,  typewriters, beds, plus various other things and 257 tires could we pack.
Thursday July 19 the container goes to Gothenburg for shipment to Matadi.

Our colleagues in Matadi will sell what we are exporting. The gain of this sales will be split 50/50 between our co-workers and Matadi Support Group. MSG will use its share to cover costs we have in the Congo.

We are now focusing on the next container. Read our list of matching items to the Congo. Go into the “Entrepreneurs” and “New Project” and “Export Congo”

Pili-pili

Nsanda group is an organization, a collective, with nine members. From the beginning the group consisted of 13 members, but 4 is not active any more. Those who are left in the organization are supporting by their stakes and contributions, or come and work in the field. As I write this report, was a member here for two days but have to go back because of work.

The cultures
2011 we ploughed up eight hectares for cassava. In addition, we planted the peanuts in the cassava on 5 hectares and soy beans on 3 hectares.

Unfortunately, we were hit by severe drought and many provinces of the Congo and destroyed much of our culture. As the harvest was not what was expected. Of the peanuts we got 900 kg instead of 10 tons which was expected, soy dried up completely and did nothing. Manioc will be harvested at the end of this year. It has done well and hopefully will give a good harvest.

We have taken up new ground, about 2 hectares, and planted one hectare of beans and one hectare pili-pili. The beans we harvest now, the result was not as expected, because the rain that came in April –  May did not provide enough moisture, but we will reap a little more than seed. Pili-pili bloom well and is already providing fruit, it will begin shipping in late August month. By the pili-pili, and manioc, we will return the loan.

Project effect
Nsanda groups pursuits are too many families here as a gift from God. It helps more than eight families. Nsanda Group have given work almost every day for many of them from September 2011 until now. According to their testimony, they have received compensation for each working day to pay for medical care, food, school fees, buying plate, rent and debts. They want to Nsanda Group’s business is growing into an industry. Nsanda group called now for “industries”.

Difficulties
We meet a number of difficulties in our work on climate change that reduces all production and affect work planning.
We hope to get a solution to our water pump which is located here.
All in Nsanda group is not active, it’s mostly family Nyambudi who work hard, most people live so far away so that they can not come here to work. We believe in more commitment to the family farm than to have this organization.
Soon, we need a warehouse for all harvest, but we lack a local, I´m thinking of manioc.
We have a shortage of agricultural machinery in order to reduce the manual work.

Planning for next season
We will continue to take up 10 hectares of new land before the next rainy season which begins in October. We plan to split it as follows:
2 hectares bananas
3 hectares to lease out to our employees
4 hectares of cassava mixed with pili-pili, beans and sesame.
1 hectares bee cultivation.

We thank Matadi Support Group for supporting us and we promise to pursue their principles.

Regards
Julienne Kukangisa
Nsanda group.

For some months we have collected used items for export to Congo. Bernt has taken responsibility for this activity. He has now been collecting almost everything to a 20 feet container. It will be packed on July 17 and 18 . Do you have anything suitable to send so please contact Bernt or any of us. In the “New Project” and “Export Congo” has a list of things that fit to send to the Congo. Or, click here

The workers, Yapeco. Julienne and Yngve in Nsanda

Sending a greeting from Nsanda Group before Clément and I go to Kinshasa tomorrow to Masuku´s funeral. He passed away on Sunday at 9:30pm in Kinshasa. Masuku was married to Maurice Ekaba which is one of Nsanda Group members. She usually comes to Nsanda to be with us for a while. She and her husband came in last month but had to cancel the stay because of her husband’s illness. The funeral will be on Saturday in Kinshasa.

It is so wonderful now, with rain falling almost every day, it’s just a shame that it costs a lot of money to go otherwise it would be interesting for you to come now to experience the new life with our farms. We have even tasted our sakasaka and you may believe that it was so good.

We have already counted on to plow 10 new hectares. Land preparation will be done as soon as I receive information from you that money is sent. The workers here have no patience, they want to be paid as soon as possible after work.

How we intend to use the new land: 2 hectares of banana plantation, 5 hectares of cassava and the gaps are mixed, for example, with peas, almonds, water melon. 2 ha, we lease out and 1 ha should we give to our drivers as salery.

That is how my husband and I have thought, have you any advice or suggestions to give, we are grateful. (Send a mail to Julienne address  julienne@matadi.hakanson.se )

We hope that Yapeco comes with a chain saw when he comes back to Matadi because it can be very helpful for Nsanda group and also to our family.

We travel back as soon as possible to Nsanda to continue our work here with the farms.

Kindest regards

Julienne and Jean-Clément

Julienne and her workers at Nsanda

First of all, I wish you a Happy Easter and may this weekend be a great celebration both to your respective families and to all MSG’s friends here and around the world.

It goes well with us here in Nsanda and the agriculture. Mrs. Masuku Melanie was traveling back to Kinshasa unexpected because her husband has fallen ill. He has trouble with high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels. Now he is in hospital in Kinshasa, we hope he will be fine again but right now he is unconscious.

The plants are growing very well and we have got back heavy rain now, it’s just a shame I can not send pictures because my camera is broken. Today we finished the replanting of 2.5 hectares cassava that were most affected by drought. Peanuts look good and healthy, we’ll see what we will get in crop. We wait a bit with the beans until the rain has fallen. They can not tolerate lots of rain. PiriPiri we will sow in two weeks.

We begin to prepare new ground next week if I get money from the members in our group, since the workforce wants money once they have finished working. I called Joyce yesterday but I got no answers about who has paid their debt to the Nsanda projects.

Nsanda fund has only $ 450 today. It will not cover all costs now because we need money for labour forces to sow beans and piri piri, harvest the peanuts at the end of April or early May, and buy storage bags.

Greetings Julienne