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A few days into our stay, we take the short drive to the village of Borgbuabu.
Borgbuabu is the village that is leasing the land to Cacao Elegguá. It is situated in the district of Kenema, in the Eastern Province.
The village doesn’t count more than 500 people, and we mainly meet older women and children when we visit. Everyone else is at work.
I have a chat with Mr Abba, the school headteacher. He is on strike because of a lack of funding from the government. Since he is also the only teacher of the establishment, all the kids are out of school!
The most striking effect of the civil war that took place between 1991 and 2002 is in the education.
Most of the over 50 are educated and skilled; they would have been over 25 and would have completed their education by the time the civil war started.
By contrast, the younger population is barely literate.
Desmond would like to contribute to the community by building a new nursery.

I also meet Ibrahim Gbondo, a community health worker who works in the Baoma Health Centre.
The centre treats the under 5s for three conditions: diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia.
As it turns out, Kenema is a diamond rich region that was at the centre of the civil war back in 2000.
The infant mortality rate was extremely high then: nearly one in three children died before reaching their first birthday.
The IRC (International Rescue Committee) was until recently running this health centre, but it is now owned by the government.

The road to recovery is going to be long, but there is a lot of hope for those who are willing to work hard and believe in change. Education and health are key to the recovery of Sierre Leone. Desmond is aware that the contribution of Cacao Elegguá must start with these very important elements.

Desmond with the kids

Satta with my and our son Miles

The village of Borgbuabu

Desmond playing with Miles in the background

Posing for the picture

Learning to drive

Grandma and baby

Hanging out with the villagers

Source: 
ReliefWeb – IRC finds staggering infant-mortality rate in Sierra Leone’s Kenema district

I was keen on coming to Sierra Leone in October, to bury the fateful date of my birthday.
Birthdays stopped being fun a few years into my thirties. And now, in the African bush, I have lost all notion of time and space.
Internet or phones do not work, it is a great disconnection.
We naturally wake up at 7am and whilst Desmond’s day starts immediately,  I just walk around the farm with Miles and Jason, Desmond’s friend who has traveled with us. We read books, reorganise the storage room (our hands on task for the stay) and hang out by the Barra.
I know today is special because, as the day draws to a close, people are coming and casually sitting on the benches of camp Eleggua. There’s also visitors that have come from Kenema. Very soon, a sound system is being installed and a huge pot of rice and sauce is being brought in.
The famous plum wine that was bought on the way to Kenema, and had remained untouched, is now open, and the party is starting.
It’s nothing I’ve ever experienced before, and it’s a great party, with local music, great food and amazing company.
I couldn’t have asked for more!
I have a good feeling about the year ahead!

Gathering around Chief’s wife

George, enjoying the party

Checku and his wife Watta

The sound system crew

Fati and Mariama

Jason and Checku

Checku and me

Enjoying the plum wine and food

Cheku, Chief and Desmond

Cacao Elegguá is having a great impact into the economy of the local community: the farm employee headcount surpasses 40.
All new recruits are given an employee handbook that put the employee wellbeing and safety at the forefront.
Employees must wear protective footwear when working on the field or doing building work. They must also wear protective gloves and eyewear if working the wood.
All footwear and work accessories are provided by the farm.

I take a walk to the cocoa plantation with TS, the farm manager.
Ten acres of cocoa trees have been intercroped with pineapple, plantain trees and ginger.
It is quite an innovative way of growing the cocoa, but best for the trees, as the plantain trees provide much needed shade to the cocoa.
Whilst the the cocoa will bear fruit in three to five years, the pineapple will be ready in six months.
Many other crops have been planted: cashew, neem, moringa, potatoes as well eggplants, cabbage, lettuce, pepper and cucumbers to make the farm self-sustainable.
There is now livestock at the farm too!
5 goats,  1 sheep and 4 hens.
The farm has outgrown its original objective of only growing cocoa!

A new management team now directs the operations at the farm.
First there is the Borgbuabu village chief: Chief Fodie Gbainda who is the Operations Manager. Then there is the construction manager: Cheku. Managing the farm operations are George and TS. And of course, Clifford, the project manager who has been present in the project from the very beginning.

Desmond regularly holds meetings to discuss the operations, and most of all, to transmit his vision for the future. It is great to hear him talk so passionately about what his aspirations are and whilst the farm development is nothing but easy or straightforward, it does feel that everyone at Cacao Elegguá understands the project and feel involved and happy to contribute.

What’s next: Desmond is building a house.
This will allow us to have a stable family home, a pied-a-terre to come back to.

Entry to the cocoa plantation

The bush all around

Chilling at camp Elegguá

TS, farm manager

Chief Fodie Gbainda with Desmond and Miles

Clifford, project manager

Cheku, construction manager

Working the land

The alley to camp Elegguá

We wake up in a beautiful clearing enclosed with bamboos.
Tents are set-up on sturdy wooden platforms. Bamboo benches have been built all around and very high trees provide a very gentle shade. This is camp Elegguá!
It is difficult to believe that this area was a wild bush just a year ago.

When we get-up, Desmond has already started his day, and we join him at the barra a community space at the heart of the plantation.
George, the assistant farm manager is opening the day by doing a role call.
George then welcomes us warmly to the farm. As Desmond’s family, he want us to feel at home, and by the end of our stay to know everyone by their first name. He then says a prayer, for peace on the day, for blessings for all. It is addressed to Allah first, and then to God.

The Cacao Elegguá farm is organised like a village.
The entrance is opened by a large driveway that leads to a little leafy roundabout.
By this roundabout sits the barra, this community space made of small walls and a roof. Everyone meets at the Barra. The workers taking a break. The women coming to cook (a cooker has been installed on a corner),  children also come and play.
Very soon, the barra becomes our favourite place, we get to know Fati, a young, slender and very friendly woman that often cooks for us against a payment, as well as her little sister Sata that likes to play with our son Miles.
We later meet the village Chief, and his wife Mariama. Their daughter has been named after me. To honour Desmond of his contribution to the community.

A storage space is built by the barra as well as a kitchen connected to a large solar panel. From then, a path leads to the camp.

The driveway leading to the Barra

George with a coca tree

The two containers used as storage

The storage and kitchen

George

Clearing land to plant vegetables for the farm

Chief Fodie Gbainda, his wife Mariama and baby Muriel

A barra

Desmond and Miles

The farm is overlooking river Moa

River Moa in the horizon

It’s barely been a year since Desmond has secured the Cacao Elegguá plantation land, in an area called “Famanger” tucked between the villages of Borgbuabu and Gliema.
I am very excited to finally meet the community and see the progress of the farm for myself.

Getting to the plantation takes time.
The first stretch, from Freetown to Kenema is easy. The roads are great and there’s lots to see on the road. We’re able to buy fruits, local food and the national drink, a fruity soft drink called “Vimto”.
We even stop over in a village where we buy a big jerrican of Bamboo wine. No one is able to give us the recipe of this sweet and delicious alcoholic beverage, but we’re told it’s made with rice.

In the village, I get to sample the ladies toilets. They’re amazing. An outdoor space circled with leafy bamboos. There’s also bamboo leaves on the floor.
The final stretch of the trip starts in Kenema and ends at the plantation.
It’s a 2 hour drive of country roads with huge potholes.
Now I understand the benefit of a Land Rover. No other car would survive!

The night has set in when we finally reach Borgbuabu. And I see so many faces that greet us already. I’ve heard so much of this village, and now I’m finally here.
We’ll meet people again soon, as we must head to the plantation for the night.

I’m planting 50 acres of cocoa on a first instance, using beans from the Forastero specie.
I purchased the cocoa pods from the Sierra Leone Research Institute. The Institute is doing ongoing research on cocoa and also has a plantation. Their seeds are renowned for their good quality in Sierra Leone.
50 acres represents a third of what I ultimately intend to plant. I am starting small to ensure I trial the best practices possible in the plantation.

The first step in setting up the nursery was to create the infrastructure that would house the cocoa seedlings.
Wood had to be sourced from the forest and manure had to be acquired from a number of villages.

Second step, polybags (that were manufactured by a Freetown company) were filled up with the manure.

Third step, the pods were opened and two local women were recruited to plant two seeds per bag.
In the process, we also planted moringa seeds, a plant with  numerous health benefits that I intend to grow and possibly sell.

Seedlings need to be watered daily before 10am and after 5pm.

4 weeks later, and the seedlings have already grown:

In about 5 months time, they will be ready to be planted!

The village of Borgbuabu, where my cocoa plantation is located is very small. It counts about one hundred souls.
Most villagers are smallhold farmers whose crops serve the purpose of feeding their family. There is also a carpenter, a builder and a blacksmith.
The school is run by three volunteers teachers, and the schoolkids pay a nominal registration school fee.

Ninety nine percent of the inhabitants are illiterate. There is no electricity or telecommunication signal in the village.

The Cacao Elegguá project is committed to employing people from the village when possible. Its goal is to teach farmers about the latest sustainable agriculture techniques, so that they could in turn increase their production.
I ultimately plan to run several educational programmes with the assistance of volunteers.

Fostering durable change and working in conjunction with the local community is paramount to this project.

The negotiations have come to a happy end.
The contract is signed. I am leasing 236.6 acres of land in Kenema. I will  grow cocoa, and as it turns out, a few other crops to make an income in the interim.
I haven’t been idle whilst the paperwork was in progress.
The labourers have started clearing the land to grow Gliricidia, a multipurpose legume which I will use for manure:

The cocoa beans I purchased from the from the Sierra Leone Research Institute have arrived:

The Gliricidia will rejuvenate the soil and provide the necessary nutrient for the crops.
I’ve also started building a well in the plantation, so that I would not rely on the water of the village when I camp on site.

As for the cocoa nursery, it is almost complete. Pictures are coming soon!

I am now spending most of my time setting up the operations in the agroforestry farm I am building between the villages of Borgbuabu and Giema, in the Kenema region, south east of Sierra Leone.
It takes about 5 hours to get there from Freetown and although I could have stayed in the villages, I have decided to start camping by the plantation.

Camping is free and it’s great to be close to nature, waking up with the birds singing.
A little boy brings us water every morning so that we could shower. We have all we need!

Staying in a tent also gives me privacy after long days of work.
When I am out and about on the farm, people tend to congregate around me, I am the new kid on the block!

Camping at the agroforestry farm

Camping at the agroforestry farm

Camping at the agroforestry farm