Graduation Ceremony at the Youth Agriculture Center

Farmer Graduates!

I was fortunate to be invited to the FIRST graduation ceremony of the Youth Agriculture Center. A simple enough ceremony that meant a lot for Liberia...Those present included a Senator, The Minister of Agriculture and the Famous Minister of Youth and Sports, the Honorable Verpileah (quite an intelligent and lovely man, who I hope runs for President of Liberia).

Chris Foyah, the Director of YAC

One of my favorite Liberian Politicians, the Honorable Verpileah.

You may remember I received a tour of this farm a few weeks ago, and excited to return to see the graduates on the hottest day of my journey so far!!

Not only did I get to witness this moment of history and visit with some amazing new "farmers," but I was able to experience "Life in Liberia." I was the guest of a Chief of Party of an NGO partnering with YAC. It was interesting in that we were the ONLY non Liberians present. Very good to see that Liberia can "work" without the constant meddling of USAID etc.


YAC is based on the Songhai model. An institution created by Fr. Godfrey Nzamujo of Benin. He was present to congratulate the students and to give the (extensive) key note address. His presentation was AMAZING, uplifting, and his gift for preaching transferred easily to his gift of presenting sustainable farming.

I want to visit Songhai, Benin so BAD!

Of course, if you know me, I was in tears most of the time during the presentation.

When this woman stood up in the crowd, and then
started singing her heart out about giving thanks to God
I was on my knees!
Just a flawless testament!

There were 127 graduates who made it through the 18 month training. All 127 were present and excited. Quite a spectacular day as these students are now charged to return to their respective counties and creating sustainable farming for their families and their communities.

Father Nzamujo - who was introduced as the
"Father of African Agriculture."

Everything from the opening prayer to the spontaneous burst into song by the graduates - or the gift soloist who sprang from the crowd and walked to the front of the line - the entire ceremony was filled with a spirit of Pride, Thanks, Burden, Hope...

I truly am blessed to have been able to witness this event (and eat the awesome fried chicken served at the VIP luncheon!)

Meeting and chatting with the Father of
African Agriculture - I am so wanting to go to Benin
and visit it his Institute!

YAC - Library

While visiting the Youth Agricultural Center (YAC) we were brought to see the classroom building and the library. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to learn there was a library, until I entered the library.

Inside the library – a resource for both the youth to study and for the neighboring villagers to do their own self study was a true reality check/slap in the face. This school, this training center, supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sport, the Liberian Government and the UNITED NATIONS is surely in need of MORE HELP!

One the library contained possibly three dozen books – of which 1/3 were completely off topic, such as the UN Report on Finance in Liberia, or the latest Liberian Government Annual Report – Not sure how these “books” are going to help me to learn to farm, 1/3 were newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, most outdated – again, not even on the topic of agriculture, and 1/3 were agricultural but so DENSE, so ACADEMIC, and so VERBOSE, that they contained more theory about agriculture than actually teaching how to grow produce or raise livestock.

Needless to say – most Liberians CAN’T READ – so if anything there needs to be large simplified books with PICTURES. Of course a dream scenario would be finding people and teaching folks how to read and then farming – yes – but TIME is of the essence. So here, on my little visit to the YAC I finally felt ILL – sick – it all came crashing down – LIBRARY – how can there be a LIBRARY when nobody reads! AND WHO WAS THE SICK DEMENTED human who thought to put these useless books, reports, and periodicals in this Library. Ok note to self Chris, the director, needs some help. Okay I will look into this in the future. But today I just need to compose myself.

And then there is the information on the wall – posters if you will that seemed more fitting for the content and helpful for the setting.

These posters helped identify tools and animals and even parts of animals. There was a diagram of a pig, chickens, and even a grass cutter! Grass cutters or ground hogs are a delicacy in Liberia – I have yet to get my hands on one – and bush caught grass cutters sell for $70 US. Ironically, NO ONE in the entire country is RAISING grass cutters. Chris and YAC is hoping next month to start the first trial of raising grass cutters! I am so excited – I asked to be first on the list as a customer! Very excited!

So,  for now the library is a mess – when I return to stay with Chris, we will have better discussions then on how I and my friends may be able to help YAC and in particular providing content appropriate books with simple instruction and large images. 

YAC - Palm Nut Oil Soap Production

To my remiss I have not mentioned Liberia's reliance on the Palm Nut. The palm nut grows in clusters on a tree very similar to Palm, Banana or Coconut tree.  Unfortunately, I can’t locate a good link to provide a history or good info, in the future I will past more about Liberia’s love affair with the Palm Nut. For now, I leave you with a link that has Liberian recipes for the use of the very unhealthy palm oil:

Now let me explain the use of palm oil and the production of palm oil soap as taught to students and locals on the YAC farm as a possible livelihood opportunity and a source of income.

The several step process is all done by hand - there are no factory machines here in the processing building.  After the palm nut clusters are removed from the trees they are hacked off the cluster by hand.

The nuts are then cracked opened and the hard black kernels are collected.

The kernels are then placed in a giant press. This press is used by two people walking around the press holding on to a long pole inserted horizontally at the top of the press (not pictured). Unfortunately, these presses cost $750 US and realizing that most villagers earn less than $25 US a month – the cost is quite prohibitive. One of the goals of YAC is to teach villages and their villagers to act as a cooperative, purchasing equipment together and sharing time and use of the equipment.

After the oil is procured, it is placed in a large boiler outside to be sterilized. Unfortunately, I was listening so intently to the processing plant guide that I neglected to photograph this expensive piece of equipment that uses charcoal to heat the oil.

After sterilization the oil is cooled and poured into molds. These large soap molds take but just a few hours to cool.

After cooling the large sheets are cut into strips, the strips can then be cut into small bars and sold on the market. Here at the YAC production facility, the soap is sold in its strip form allowing the purchaser to make bars the size they choose to redistribute and sell, or to use at home.

I learned that on her visit yesterday the President purchased 50 strips, I myself purchased 2. At $150 Liberian per bar that was about a little more than $4US for two strips. Quite a bargain for the very moisturizing qualities of palm oil soap.

Youth Agricultural Center - Trying to make a difference

Youth Agricultural Center, Bensenville, Liberia

I have been very lucky to meet some amazing people, both local and expats during my first three weeks in Liberia. YES, it has been three weeks! Even more fortunate, that my new friends and acquaintances have now started to include me in their days, meetings, and yesterday my first journey outside Mamba Point, let alone Monrovia! I was invited by Gary Walker, Chief of Part of an NGO called ORT. The organization alone is worth conversation and a blog entry but I will let you kind reader do the research if you desire at these links:

World ORT

History of World ORT and its' Jewish roots

Gary and I have become quick friends, and certainly I appreciate his over 35 years in Africa experience. His stories are amazing, his spirit is lovely and cautious, and his commitment to his projects' mission is blatant. Gary, invited me on a morning meeting to the Youth Agricultural Center (YAC) but when he realized how excited I was he added several more stops and meetings to the day! Gary welcomed me to all meetings as a participant and subsequent entries will detail my trip through red light, the art we found in Paynesville, the discussions we had in the truck with his Liberian colleagues, and our meeting with the Danish NGO IBIS.

In this entry I would like to focus on YAC. Also along for the journey was one of Garys' drivers, Jerry, his senior program officer, Harry, and a security officer/handler who was seemingly assigned to me, Dillon. Jerry was absolutely a darling gentleman who had to maneuver through traffic, street markets, police blockades, war torn unpaved dirt roads, and tracks. Jerry was of good spirits and without worry stopped anywhere along our route to allow me to take photos, ask questions, ponder, or even just acknowledge a bombed out ruin, former homes. Here is my entry regarding Harry: Learning about Harry

But let me focus on YAC - this center is out in Bensenville the capital of Monterrasado County, where is lies Monrovia. I learned that over 20 years ago President Tolbert wanted to decentralize power n the county and move the capital from Monrovia out to Bensenville in order to share the wealth and power, noble and appreciated - it is far from a county center as we would know it in the States. the picture above shows the entry to the farm on a dirt road which we traveled for almost an hour once the pavement stopped at the Bensenville government center. I came to learn that YAC sits on the war torn, bombed out ruins of a successful prewar youth camp - that used to house several dormitories, field and and opportunities for urban youth to spend their weekends and summer just like we are used to in America.

We were warmly welcomed by Chris, the director of the YAC, and an employee of the UN Development Project, who acts as a "loaned employee to the Liberian government and is working to coach and mentor future leadership to sustainably run the YAC successfully. The purpose of the YAC is to teach youth (150 of which live on the farm in renovated dormitories) and even the local village young adults how to farm - a lost skill here in Liberia. Unfortunately, Friday is the day the youth are out on "real" farms learning from real life farmers. 

Dillon standing in front of the soon to be Bensenville
WORLD ORT training center.

First the current residents, a farm workers' pigs,
will need to be evicted.

We had our meeting with Chris and his team regarding the partnership Gary wanted to build - and it turned out there was even greater opportunity - and now WORLD ORT is not only going to commission the growing of jute for their weaving projects but is also going to renovate one of the buildings to create a training center out in Bensenville!

While surveying the structure, I did not mention the foul smell (for all I knew it was ME) but finally understood that there were residents!

Apparently one of the farm workers who live on YAC land was housing his pigs in the ruin - obviously a lot of work needs to be done before this structure is usable - the good news! The farm has usable wells! Of course the source of for energy out here is gas powered generators. 

So this was great news and all parties, including myself, was excited at this new found partnership. So as Gary and Chris returned to the office to hash out the details, Chris assigned Kwartee (sp?) a kind older fellow to give me a tour of the farm, Dillon followed and this is when I realized that he was surely "assigned" to handle me.

Chicken Coop

So our first stop was a rudimentary "hatchery" of sorts. This structure was built to explain to youth and local farmers that one does not have to build a large structure to house chickens but some sticks, and simple supplies could allow you to raise chickens, ducks, and even RABBITS! (if you know me you know Vamsi and I love rabbit stew!) It seems YAC was trying to teach the locals to raise rabbits as an alternative to bushmeat but instead the locals would rather have the rabbits as pets...LOL how American, eh?

Duck Eggs!

I was so excited to find duck eggs on the farm I went Crazy! How much and how many duck eggs could I purchase today! Well then the giggles started - apparently no one EATS duck eggs just the ducks - sigh - what do you mean? Well, Liberians just don't like duck eggs and unfortunately, these eggs had already been fertilized. Realizing that I would be back to YAC I encouraged them to raise some duck eggs that could be eaten and I would surely purchase and even teach the workers how to make them "tasty." they offered to sell me ducks - which would have been find (they have a "prep center" on the farm) but I was not prepared with proper transport to carry meat back to town -  I will be next time! I have no doubt I will be bringing a lot back to the city with me! Well next stop was the Piggery - yes here we say Piggery!

As close as I wanted to get to the Piggery.

Even though I did not want go into the Piggery, unfortunately, it seemed I had no choice. Unbeknownst to us the day before, President Sirleaf Johnson visited YAC and she apparently went all the way in the Piggery and toured the entire "facility." Kwartee and his crew believed that if she could do it, it was appropriate that I would be honored to walk in her foot steps - ah indeed honored - so I held my breath and entered the piggery - once inside the crew insisted I take photos before they let me out - yes Yes photos!

Piggery Piggies

I would come to learn that the Piggery was not the end of my animal experience - apparently the President also visited the more industrial chicken coop and Kwartee let Simoult lead us into the cement structure housing over a 1,000 chickens. I suppose today would have been a good day to wear my hazmat suit.

Yesterday, president Johnson Sirleaf bought over 300 hundred chickens,
Simoult was curious to know how many they needed to butcher for me.

Once I learned the pink solution was used meant to protect the chickens and NOT me - I decided to decline the invitation and not enter the chicken house - I thought maybe it was time to learn about produce!

I came to learn that on the farm they were currently growing papaya, eggplants, and lettuce! Unfortunately, there is currently no irrigation system from the neighboring low lying streams (the farm is high on the hill) and certainly using precious drinking well water would not be appropriate - and so these dried out plants are such, because currently the farm is hand watering each plant - since the youth are out en masse today - the plants go without water on Fridays - risking the very crop they have worked so hard to nurture - WOW.

Eggplant Crop

Lettuce Hutch

YAC also grows pineapples - which until yesterday I never knew that one pineapple plant produces ONE PINEAPPLE A YEAR! Which for me - made pineapples that much more precious. For now on pineapples are going to be treated royally in my household. I also learned that birds enjoy pineapples as much as we do - and so once pineapples start maturing they must be hidden from the birds underneath dried grass! 

Pineapple Orchard

We were taken to the library and classroom building on the other side of the farm: Library Blog Post

Afterwards we were brought to the Palm Nut/Palm Oil/Palm Soap production building: Palm Nut Oil Soap Production

Did I mention it was HOT. Unfortunately, our time ran out at YAC and we were unable to go to the other side of the farm which houses the fish hatchery and growth ponds. But Chris and bonded over conversation and he invited me out to stay in his home which he gave me a tour and while modest seemed appropriate for a night or two stay. The thought of having visitors lifted Chris' spirits immensely and I promised my return in the near future - as their was much more to learn and I certainly enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the bush farm life. I trust I will learn so much more - and hopefully be introduced to the local villages - where I might learn about the secret society of the white painted young women I saw on the street:

But for now we need to return  to our schedule and head to Paynesville. I purchased my two soap sticks and bag of fresh lettuce and we were bid an adieu much like Wizard leaving Emerald City - as by the end of our visit we had quite a coterie of followers shaking our hands and thanking us for our kind visit. They did not seem to understand that it was I who owed them the most thanks, for not only sharing their good work - but for doing the good work with little fanfare, affirmation or accolades. If was humbling and almost embarrassing to think that our visit and interest was an affirmation of their most important work.