I talked with Kaenfa this morning. He is the head of Sisa Asoke and an engineer by training. He is currently acting as head technical adviser to a large group in Laos (they have funding at ($100 Million) and a Chinese government official.

He wants to know the following information:

• What is the market price of cassava in Uganda?
• What is the price of electricity per kilowatt hour?
• Will the powers that be in Uganda allow a private power company to sell electricity back to the grid?

I hope those questions tickle your imagination as much as they did mine!

• I need to know what vegetables and fruits are available in March, April and May.
• Can we get soy sauce?
• Can we find chilies?

Did any of the Life in Africa memebers participate in the welding classes?

Linda Nowakowski said:

• I need to know what vegetables and fruits are available in March, April and May. * Can we get soy sauce? * Can we find chilies?

Krua Thai restaurant in Kampala is run by the mother of a boy at my kids' school. (tel. 0712 777433 no airtime now - writing this here so I don't lose it). I will endeavor this week to get her name and permission to email. She's a very nice lady and I think she might be happy to help a group of Thai visitors on specific Thai food issues if asked nicely! We might even see if she'd help shop for the group in Kampala and ship to Gulu during midpoints in your stay.

Otherwise, yes on basic soy sauce. Don't know what kind of chillies you need. Give me a list of fruits and vegetables you're after and we can see from there. I don't know how to make a list for you off the top of my head. there is quite a variety in Kampala - much less in Gulu.

Linda Nowakowski said:

Did any of the Life in Africa memebers participate in the welding classes?

no.

norbert owns a welding machine though, also knows how to weld and knows some other local welding workshops that work for him regularly. What do we need to weld?

I think for the most part the folks at Sisa Asoke make most of their own equipment. I am looking to see what skills might be available.

The cassava question is about making your own electricity. 8-D

we are growing a lot of cassava. I've pm'd norbert to check in here next time he's logged in. he can answer all of the questions in your first set of questions off the top of his head.

Cassava = making your own electricity?

Okay, you have definitely got my attention.

Hi Linda, Here's what I have for you.

• What is the market price of cassava in Uganda?

Variable. From Shs300 (USD0.17) in Kampala to Shs700 (USD0.4) in Mbarara.

• What is the price of electricity per kilowatt hour?

About Shs500 (USD0.29) per KWh if you consume more than 15KWh per month, otherwise Shs73 (USD0.04).

• Will the powers that be in Uganda allow a private power company to sell electricity back to the grid?

I believe so.

There are some people who have issues about the use of fuel derived from staple foods in an inefficient internal combustion engine. My opinion on this is that if the engine is in a large SUV carrying just one passenger then the use of the biofuel is definitely debatable. If on the other hand the biofuel is in a tractor ploughing a field to be planted with more cassava or sunflower (biodiesel)....? OK? Regardless of where the fuel comes from sensible decisions have to be made on how to use it.

The situation here is that because of the bulk of cassava and the low price, using the cassava to generate electricity that can be used locally by the community and the rest being sold back to the grid AND using the remains of the cassava after its use in the electricity production to make organic fertilizer, it often more wise than transporting the cassava.

The group that Kaenfa is working with in Laos has $100 million in investments for these projects. China is developing their plans. With numbers that are available here in Thailand (sale price of cassava and cost of electricity) the investment can be paid back in an estimated 4 years and the community then owns the power plant. They have ongoing, season independent employment and everything is recycled.

There are other plants that can be used for this as well.

I think that you and Kanfa are going to make an incredible team. At this point he is seriously considering coming to Uganda with us for at least part of the time we will be there.

I forgot to add: He thinks he might know of investors for your project.

That really big bag of fabric that I took to Gulu --- did it get used up? If not, set it aside....I have ideas for it when I get there!

If Cory could put windows in the dome for light, is there the kind of plastic he would need available in Kampala or Gulu? Or would he need to bring it from the States?

don't count on the fabric still being there. highly doubt any plastic available in Uganda would work for dome windows. Clear roofing sheets might be available but expensive.

btw - Linda - don't ever say the word investors in Northern Uganda! There's a lot of controversy about selling Acholi land to foreigners, so it's become a dirty word. Financial partners might work better :)

Not talking about land....talking about people willing to invest in helping build the plant. Not own it, lend money in order to make a profit. Maybe the goal should be to teach them the language so that they don't hear words with their own incorrect definitions and throw away an opportunity by not listening to what is really being said. You are not going to get to every possible investor to teach them not to call an investment an investment.

I hear what you are saying about investing in the planet Linda, just mentioning this in passing as a current politico-cultural reality that we really won't have the opportunity to address that broadly before you get here. Thought you'd appreciate the alert to the pc language of the day.

It's not at all my intent (as part of any goal) to teach all of Northern Uganda how to understand the word investor, or to get every investor to teach anyone anything. But Opok Farms is operating in a current environment where misunderstandings of the word investor is causing a lot of political trouble across the region. Since WE certainly do not want to bring known political friction into the Opok Farms project (please agree with me on this!), we can and should think about using language that appeals to instead of rebuffs public opinion about what we are doing there.

The beauty of language is that there are other words WE can use - collaborators, partners, etc. that will better ease local acceptance of these new community building ideas and partners than the current flare-word investors will. My goal has nothing to do with how people understand investors at large, but how they understand, accept and embrace this effort.

I would hope that you already understood that I would use your language suggestions. I was just pointing out that it should not be unexpected if someone slips up and says the I word just because it is the correct word. I think it suggests a heads up in the community. In March, you are likely to have people from American, Thai, Ugandan and Ghanan cultures under the same roof, around the same table. It will be tough no matter what.

and I meant plant as in power plant not planet :-)

my bad - I thought you were talking in general terms about all of our collaborators

Read this article in the paper today and immediately thought of OPOK farms. Might be an interesting option for another source of income.

http://newvision.co.ug/D/9/37/59 1080

Farming Tilapia fish is indeed a good idea.

As usual I have something a bit out of left field. Earlier this week was Blog Action Day when about 20,000 bloggers wrote about the same issue--the environment. I was one of them. Most of the time when I write the good idea of what I'm going to say doesn't come first. I just start typing and figure out where I'm going from there.

Most things in life, it seems, we get to choose around the edges. The subject of "the environment" is such a big issue. I certainly support doing the little things we can do as individuals. But it's hard to get really excited about them. So I tried to talk about my own feelings about big problems and what I as an individual can do.

In the process of doing the post I can across a great blog post from Dave Smith co-founder of Smith & Hawken at a site called Briar Patch Network. The post is about ideas and writing of Wendell Berry Seventeen Rules for a Sustainable Community. Le me copy the rules here:

1. Always ask of any proposed change or innovation: What will this do to our community? How will this affect our common wealth.
2. Always include local nature - the land, the water, the air, the native creatures - within the membership of the community.
3. Always ask how local needs might be supplied from local sources, including the mutual help of neighbours.
4. Always supply local needs first (and only then think of exporting products - first to nearby cities, then to others).
5. Understand the ultimate unsoundness of the industrial doctrine of ‘labour saving’ if that implies poor work, unemployment, or any kind of pollution or contamination.
6. Develop properly scaled value-adding industries for local products to ensure that the community does not become merely a colony of national or global economy.
7. Develop small-scale industries and businesses to support the local farm and/or forest economy.
8. Strive to supply as much of the community’s own energy as possible.
9. Strive to increase earnings (in whatever form) within the community for as long as possible before they are paid out.
10. Make sure that money paid into the local economy circulates within the community and decrease expenditures outside the community.
11. Make the community able to invest in itself by maintaining its properties, keeping itself clean (without dirtying some other place), caring for its old people, and teaching its children.
12. See that the old and young take care of one another. The young must learn from the old, not necessarily, and not always in school. There must be no institutionalised childcare and no homes for the aged. The community knows and remembers itself by the association of old and young.
13. Account for costs now conventionally hidden or externalised. Whenever possible, these must be debited against monetary income.
14. Look into the possible uses of local currency, community-funded loan programmes, systems of barter, and the like.
15. Always be aware of the economic value of neighbourly acts. In our time, the costs of living are greatly increased by the loss of neighbourhood, which leaves people to face their calamities alone.
16. A rural community should always be acquainted and interconnected with community-minded people in nearby towns and cities.
17. A sustainable rural economy will depend on urban consumers loyal to local products. Therefore, we are talking about an economy that will always be more cooperative than competitive.

What struck me reading through these ideas is they make sense for the Opok Farms Village planning, and they make sense for the local economy where I live. At least, I'm very interested to see how the economy in my area could become more resilient and ssustaining of the people here.

Dave Smith also links to another piece by Berry Think Little. Berry is much more in touch with the Earth than I--he even plows his fields with a team of mules. Plus Berry is a wonderful writer and poet. I was so impressed with the essay "Think Little" because it is so easy to feel a bit overwhelmed by how big the problems facing us all are. And in feeling overwhelmed not knowing what to do next.

I guess the idea of thinking little is in the eye of the beholder. Opok Farms Village seems pretty big to me, but it's along the lines of the scale Berry is talking about. So the challenges are small, but still of a scale where individuals can imagine acting.

Sure, what needs to be done in Northern Uganda differs in many significant details with what needs doing here in Western Pennsylvania. Still going down Berry's list, many good things that can be done at Opok Farms Village are good things things that can be done where I live too. I like that, because as we try to move forward together we can compare our experiences.