First, my boss, Mafayo Lungu, is back to being healthy. He called me this past week to check in, and he'll be in Lilongwe this week, so we'll meet up.
While I'll continue to call him "my boss", now that I've quit work at IITA I have to find a new working arrangement between Mafayo and me. I've put in a proposal to EWB to use some funds (less than $200) for travel and phone expenses to stay in touch with Mafayo and continue to nudge him towards sustainable success. He and I will work out the details this week, hopefully.
Second, I've found some very works interesting leads with Africa Invest, TreeCrops, and Fair Trade work in macadamia nuts in Malawi. All three of these companies are either designing or testing supply chain systems that involve small Malawian farmers. During this month of April I'm in discussions between companies and organizations such as these and my manager, Ka-hay Law. Between what our EWB team needs and what I'm interested in we'll have hopefully found a fit before the start of May.
Finally, in a week or so I'll be off the Zambia for a field trip and a visit or two. Jon Beale, a colleague of mine in Southern Province, Zambia, is helping host a large field day in conjunction with his sorghum project work which I want to attend. After that I'm hoping to make a bit of a trip of it and see Victoria Falls in Livingstone--this time of year, just after the rainy season, they're supposed to be quite a sight.
It's been too long since I wrote and I hope this catches things up a bit.
