Dear Friends,

Our combine in a box has been in the port since Saturday, May 23rd and is now nearly  through the clearing process. Yesterday we received a copy of the last piece of paper form the Tanzanian government confirming the numbers Ray had negotiated with Bollore, our agency at the port.  Bollore is now making final arrangements for the truck that is going to take the container to Iringa.  Jerry Diaz, Ray's guy in Dar, estimated yesterday that the container could be leaving the port  by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest...

Thank you for all for your prayers and concerns!  It was a miracle that Ray was available just when we needed him to go and meet face to face with the people from Bollore that were giving us a hard time.  Plus, I think the Dar office got some heat from their South Africa headquarters about what they were doing(or NOT doing)...in any case, when Ray met with them, they worked out a solution that was acceptable to all concerned.  It will cost Cheetah something over and above the $3293 we sent them from our Harvesters of Hope account at church...but not an unreasonable amount.

So we fully expect to be able to report very soon that the container is on the truck and on its way to Iringa(Kisolanza).. The John Deere people have been notified so that they will ready to unload the combine when it arrives...

We have requested the Bollore people to take a snap shot(digitally) of our container once it is loaded aboard the truck at the port...and send it to us.  Jerry Diaz or someone from the Cheetah office in Iringa will take some photos of the container when it arrives...so we should have some images for our website soon.

I talked with Ray yesterday by phone; he is here in the USA for meetings, with donors, and other fundraising activities. He will be returning to TZ for several weeks around the July 4th time frame.

He said the harvest is already beginning as the weather has been dry earlier than usual, so the combine will be put to work as soon as it is put together and tested.   People in the village cooperatives have been informed of the coming of the combine and so there is a lot of anticipation for its coming...

Thank you all again or your participation in this great effort!

-Paul