Project

The project.
Some people told me that whenever they were checking out my blog, it looked as if I’m not doing anything useful here. Tssss. What are you people thinking?!? ;)
As you (might) know, the subject of our research is ‘General inventory of the agricultural situation of Malawi’, with a focus on subjects like diseases, breeding, housing and feeding. Next to this inventory we’re trying to get the major problems on each of these subjects clear, so we will be able to create a plan for future agricultural teams. Here in Malawi our project is being supervised by A.C.E.M. (Association of Christian Educators in Malawi), who contacted us to the National Resources College close by. After some meetings there, the most important decisions and agreements about the project were made. We were able to start writing our questionnaire. After completing the final version, we were ready to jump on our bikes and cycle to local villages, together with a student from the NRC, to translate our questions into Chichewa. We completed a total of 100 interviews with smallholder farmers.
At the moment, all data are entered into the computer and we are writing our reports. Literature research, analyzing, diagrams, conclusions etc. Because of a lack of computers, and often enough because of a power knock-out, we can’t work as fast as we want to. But with two computers (most of the time), enough non-computer work and seven full days a week, we’ll get there.
In the future, they’re supposed to come three or four agricultural teams a year to Malawi. If everything works out as planned, they will follow up each other’s project, trying to solve some problems and improve the agricultural situation. Today we visited feeding factory and a chicken farm with 130.000 laying hens. Tonight some more computer work!

P.S. Pictures can't be uploaded today, have to wait till next time...