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Our container, with our modified John Deere 3300 combine inside, has been on a long sea voyage from New York, where it was loaded aboard the Al Safat on March 25. It reached the container port in the United Arab Emirates(Khor al Fakkan) at the end of April, too late to catch the Apulia. Instead it was loaded, after a delay of about a week, aboard the Albert Rickmers, bound for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
These delays were unavoidable it seems because of the many stops container ships make; in fact, the delay was almost welcome because it gave our agency in Dar es Salaam, BOLLORE, more time to deal with our documents. They received a complete set of documents on April 8, but did not review them or contact us about changes needed until end of the first week in May. Then they wanted all sorts of changes and every time we made a change, they added another requirement. Finally, Ray Menard, the founder of Cheetah Development, and Jerry Diaz, a new employee of Cheetah in Dar es Salaam, went in to meet with the Bollore people and worked out a solution to the bureaucratic “hurdles” that were thrown up at every turn. Right now we are awaiting final written confirmation of the agreement with the various port authorities so that our container can be processed for release. Our ship, the Albert Rickmers, arrived in Dar es Salaam on Sunday night, May 17, but was forced to wait, anchored outside the port, until Thursday night, May 21st. After entering the port and docking, our container was unloaded and turned over to the port authorities on Saturday, May 23. Our hope is that with the solution worked out by Ray, that it will be processed promptly and loaded aboard a “semi-truck/trailer” for the road trip to Iringa, about 300 miles inland. We still believe our combine will be ready to work as a thresher/sheller in the many villages where Cheetah Development has farm families participating in their innovative maize(corn)production and marketing program. The harvest starts around mid-July, depending on the rains. Our expert, Steve Strehlow, is preparing to travel to Iringa to supervise the reassembly of the combine and the training on local personnel in operating and maintaining the machine. We will have the support of the local John Deere agency in Tanzania, LONAGRO, in unloading the combine and reassembly, at Kisolanza, near Iringa.
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Our ship, the Albert Rickmers, is now docked in the port of Dar es Salaam. Ray Menard, and his guy in Dar, Jerry Diaz, are presently meeting with our clearing agent to work out a solution to a problem that has come up. We think we have identified a solution that Ray suggested in a phone call from Iringa on Tuesday. We have also been able to make a contact high up in the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam, courtesy of Cheetah's friend, Kjell Bergh, who is the Honorary Tanzanian Consulate here in Minnesota. If necessary we will ask them for help in straightening out the bureaucratic speed bump we have encountered. The next two weeks will be critical as that is the time given by the port to get containers cleared and out of the port before charges of $80 per day start... I am feeling confident now that Ray is in Dar and working on the problem. Steve Strehlow emailed me that he is still available for a short trip to Iringa to put our combine together when it finally arrives... Fasten your seat belts for a bit of a rough ride through the turbulent waters of the Tanzanian bureaucracy in the next few days. Stay tuned for news as it changes daily!   Our container, aboard the Albert Rickmers, arrived right on schedule early on Monday, East African time(nine hours ahead of us) and is now anchored outside the harbor of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, waiting it's turn to enter and unload. It is one of nine ships waiting to enter the harbor.
When it enters, our container will be unloaded and then moved through the port for customs clearance and forwarding by Bollore/AFRICA LOGISTICS, our agent. We are now working with them to get out documents in order so that we can get our container on its way to Iringa asap. It has been a learning experience, for sure, dealing with the complicated bureaucratic procedures common to many African ports. We are also working with Cheetah's representative in Dar es Salaam, Jerry Diaz, who is helping us understand how to navigate through the rough waters of the Tanzanian port bureaucracy... You can follow this link to see the location of Albert Rickmers, Live Ships Maps Spring, 2015 Much has happened since the fundraising part of our project took place last spring. Thank you again to all who participated in the fundraising both within and from outside our congregation! We are able to report that we have raised a total of just under $20,000 in all, thanks to the generosity of so many. Last year at this time we were hoping our modified combine would be in Iringa, Tanzania, to start working during the maize harvest in July or August, 2014. Steve Strehlow and his team at SJS Farms, Inc. did their part by getting all the modifications done and tested. But, it turned out that shipping the combine in a container across two oceans was more challenging than even the first part. Which was buying, modifying, and preparing the machine to go…  The Albert Rickmers, just leaving the port of Khor al Fakkan on Sunday, May 10. We made it on the news!
Check it out today at noon! Watch KARE11 for an interview and announcement of this event, with Ray Menard, the founder of Cheetah Development. The link to the actually interview, KARE11 A big “thank you” to all who came to our Saturday night fundraiser on April 26th; we had a standing room only crowd. A big thank you to all who generously donated over $3,000 to get our combine on its way to Africa! Another big “thank you” to all the volunteers who pitched in to get this done…many hands make light work, as my mother used to say. A final big “thank you” to the performers who entertained us and made it a fun evening. I think I heard someone say… “we should do this more often”…well, maybe.
A great surprise was the appearance of the founder of Cheetah Development, Ray Menard, a little over half way through the program. He was coming directly from the end of a two day conference on Cheetah Development… with interested parties from all over the country. We really didn’t expect him to be able to make it. He brought an urgent message on how this combine will help to reduce the 20-30% losses from the “beating with a stick” traditional method plus it will relieve the women of each village the tremendous extra work of shelling corn in this way. You see, in Africa, shelling corn (as well as grinding and cooking it) is “women’s work”, so this will have a huge impact on the women in the villages. Just think, when you go from 8 bags per acre to 30+ in one year, when joining the cooperative, and getting a loan for hybrid seed and nitrogen fertilizer, how much more work there is in the shelling! Our modified combine will zip this corn through in no time, eliminating the losses, and the women will have more time for their children and household work… Another big “thank you” goes out to Steve Strehlow and his team at SJS Farms, Inc. These guys have done an amazing job converting the combine to a mobile corn sheller and cleaner. Most of you will have seen the results of Steve and his team in fabricating the hopper just inside the entrance to the church. Their work on the combine itself is almost done and we are close to being ready to ship it off to Africa! Please check our Facebook page and website for pictures and updates on our progress. And please, if you have not already donated, consider giving these farmers…so many of them women…a helping hand by donating to Harvesters of Hope. We started out with a goal of $19,000 to buy, ship with spare parts, and reassemble the combine to Iringa in Tanzania. We have raised about $13,000 so far and are still $6,000 short of our goal, so we still need your help! This is going to make a huge difference in people’s lives, especially the women. Let’s make it happen! |