Honourary Portuguese

It is funny, wherever I go I end up being an honourary Portuguese. Janna and I have been looking for a place to get some exercise and we found a place with a great pool, with a nice bar beside it that serves great food. The funny thing is that it is at the local Portuguese club. So we have joined the club, paid our initiation fees and I can proudly say that I am a member of the Portuguese club. I definitely never thought I would be able to say that during my year in Malawi. The club was formed in the 1980's after the mass exodus of Portuguese out of neighbouring Mozambique during its civil war. I don't think that there are many of them left but I have actually heard Portuguese spoken there.
On a side note when I was in Zambia we had to pay a ticket for not having a reflective sticker on our front bumper. The Zambian cop, after looking at my drivers license that I couldn't really be 35. I assumed he meant I didn't look old enough but he said I looked older because I have gray hairs in my sideburns. That was a first for me.
I am excited as tomorrow is the first big event that I have specifically helped organize. The money was sourced by me through Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funds and it is a meeting with the already partially developed farming stakeholders in Malawi to begin the process of truly identifying the issues that are preventing Malawi from fully developing its agriculture sector so that an effective lobby and advocacy strategy can be developed. We have been able to get the highest civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Fisheries to agree to come, here in Malawi that post is called the Principal Secretary rather than Deputy Minister like it is at home. As well it will be our first chance to really meet with some of the large farmers in Malawi who we want to also become a member of the Farmers Union. Our mandate is to speak for all farmers regardless of their commodity or their size. Currently we have mostly groupings of smallholder farmers (less than 1 hectare usually). The benefit to bringing the larger farmers in is that there are many issues that are common across the board for all farmers. The larger farmers have some opportunities to raise the voice on some issues due to their greater agri-business sensibilities and larger resources. What the Farmers Union can offer them is the numbers (most farmers are smallholders) that are needed to influence politicians and public policy. As well many local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will be present including OXFAM and Save the Children. It should be a productive two days.