Spending the day at the Nandos farm our morning was dedicated to completing interviews. Nando’s took control over this particular farm just over 9 months before our visit. In that time they have expanded their ABE chilli (African Bird’s Eye) farming and started investing in a program that teaches people about chilli farming, but also teaches them about farming skills in general.
The Nando’s farm is called Muxamba – which just means farm. But to the people working here it means family, pride, passion.. every value that is on the Nando’s compass around the world originated here.
My first interview of the day was a women called Christina, she is 31 years old, and loves working on the peri farm because the “chilli money” provides money for food for her family. She is part of the peri program which helps farmers get the best start and trains them in effective farming. She only joined the programme last November, this was just after planting season so she has not yet had a full harvest so is naturally skeptical to the benefits of the program, but the girls she works with keep reassuring her that this season will provide.
My second interview was Alda. She is 21, the same age as me, and has a 3 year old child. I must admit, this interview was probably the hardest interview for me this week. When we were asking about healthcare and hospitals she confinded in me that just earlier this year she had lost her child during birth due to a complication in her c-section.
Alda retains an optimistic view on everything, aiming to start her own business. Through learning the different techniques of farming, she aims to use these at home and sell her products at the local market for extra income.
Hearing information like this really set in why we were here, our mission to make peoples lives better, through education, healthcare and housing. Despite all of this she was telling me how she loves farming and is using this experience to gain knowledge about agriculture. In the future she hopes to be able to have her own business running a farm and sell her products on a market stall to help her family.
The car journey home after today’s interviews we had the usual people (Me, Jess, Nigel and Percy) in Yvonne’s car with the speaker on. ‘Buckets’ of sunshine and power ballads united us as a group every single car journey.
However, I couldn’t help but get lost in thought about the information shared with me earlier that day. A real eye opening experience – I knew the information would be hard to hear and set myself up for this, but I can say one thing. You cannot set yourself up for actually hearing it. Despite preparing to hear hard stories, talking to the farmer and hearing their experience first hand shakes up a lot of emotion – it makes it real. These emotions fuelled my need to do a good job throughout the rest of the week, we had to do well to make a difference.
That night we were rushed out the door to dinner, which we thought was strange as it had been pretty laid back so far…
But when we found out why we had to be exactly on time, or even better – early, we were sure glad we made it. We went to a cliff top bar/restaurant with the most amazing view of the sunset. Laure ordered everyone a passion fruit cocktail which reminded some of us of a Solero cocktail. There’s just something about a view that makes everything better!
This was an amazing way to unwind, especially after a hard day. We stayed here until after the sun set. It was an amazing little alcove that you would never ever expect from the outside. From here, we went to Mundo’s for dinner. On the menu they had strongbow… now those that know me, this was an amazing thing to read on a menu, a little reminder of home!
Another day, done and dusted…
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