In the company of wolves

The Beginning of the End

Two things that happened today: the brand new dairy factory – a separate initiative in partnership with Aldeia Nova – produced its first ready-to-eat and ready-to-sell dairy products, 4 months after the first dairy opened in Aldeia Uma.







Very little about this project has been making me excited recently – but this is really satisfying: part of the whole agenda for this agricultural community project in Angola – financed and commissioned by the Angolan government – is to reduce the enormous amount of imported goods coming into Angola – which includes dairy products – when, in terms of resources, there is very little need for it – only infrastructure and the means to harness the resources have stood in the way.




Now “Wako Distribuidora” has produced its first pasteurised full-cream milk, savoury drinking yoghurt, and soft cheese.




Soon to follow is sweet drinking yoghurt, fruit flavoured yoghurts, and hard cheese. After our last few weeks of virtual hunger-strike (having tired of being forced to drink radioactive water, as well as food prepared in a cockroach infested kitchen!) this came as welcome news at supper tonight, since it’s all coming to us and the villages until they get the distribution and sales sorted out… Yey!




The second piece of news for today: we are leaving! Finally! We’ve been waiting and waiting for a conclusive date. We are having out exit flights booked for April 15th: Wako-Kungo to Luanda to Congo to Brussels to Bristol! Practically door-to-door service!!

This means that from now until we leave I will be blogging primarily about Wako-Kungo, and our lives here in Angola throughout the last 3 1/2 years. I have been very preoccupied with gender - I do afterall have a gender agenda (!!) - but there's plenty of time for that, whereas the chances of us ever returning to Wako-Kungo are very slim, and I shouldn't waste this opportunity. So I apologise from the outset for any tedious anecdotes, self-indulgent sentiment, and stories that aren't funny unless you were there (which very few of you would have been!!)...



Dairy
Milk
Wako Distribuidora
Wako-Kungo
Up Yours Nestle
Angola
Turbo Tagger