A day that was left open turned out to be a little crazy.
One of the primary ways we are looking to help build the economy in Arua is to find ways to add a processing capability to the sector so that more value-add can be captured in the region. We continue to meet with folks with whom we might collaborate or in whom we might invest.
Today we started by meeting a UC Davis trained agricultural specialist who has spent the last 30 years working with Government and NGO’s but has realized that these efforts come to naught. Now she is working with village groups to try to improve agricultural practices. She has ten groups working with a portable water pump for irrigation (it looks like a Stairmaster with hoses attached!) and she has built a small cold storage facility at one village that is heavily involved in vegetables to try to reduce post harvest losses.
Next up was the Uganda Coffee Development Association officer for all West Nile. There is an abandoned coffee processing facility here in Arua (actually it didn’t process even one bean) and we are trying to work out whether we can make a commercial argument for its re-opening. He is a large scale coffee farmer himself and he was an absolute mine of information. It was a great briefing and I now know the process and the costs for taking the coffee cherry and turning it into “Parchment” and then the further processing necessary to produce the “green bean” which is ready for export. The margins appear thin on the part of the process that we have the machine for, so this might not go anywhere, but you never know!
In the afternoon I visited the Bishop of the Church of Uganda. The church has an ambitious plan to develop an office park in town. The projections are becoming more realistic all the time and the success of the project will depend on the stabilization of the Uganda Shilling and the opportunity to raise significant funds. I suspect money raising is going to be tough in this environment. We also talked about building the project in Phases, so that the activity can reflect the money that has been raised to date more exactly.
We then chased down our friend Ronald (Clinic) and provided him with a small loan to buy a generator to power the compressor for the dental chair; spent some time in Sylvia’s shop to see the new color printer and to talk about her progress – which is substantial and swung back to the hotel to meet with Bosco and Michael. They are in the honey business, are now old friends, and we talked about trying to form a regional cooperative of all the local honey producers and then creating a single brand with good volumes of honey. They are going to explore the idea with Mophat in Yumbe.
Finally dinner with Jake, a young American from the Boston area who is working at CAFECC as an intern. He will be here for 8 months, which is quite an adventure for an 18 year old!! After all the rice and beans and fatty meat he has been eating, I was able to provide Pizza – what a joy! He will also attend The King’s College in New York in the fall. Good Man!
Tonight is my last night here. I paid my bills and said my goodbyes. The staff here is so kind and they make me feel so at home!
Tomorrow the blog will be from the capital city – Kampala.
Goodbye Arua – till next time.
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