Think Back

When I think back about taking finals in school I never remember it as a big deal, I am sure there were hours of preparation and studying I have just blocked from my memory.  In my role as a professor here at ABCU, every time I give a final, I think I am as nervous as my students about it.  Is it because I am new at this and unsure of myself?  Just like anything, I suppose we learn from our history and become that much more comfortable with our future and the anxiety ultimately fades.  I have realized this trip that I am not alone in the questions I have of starting this new program. 


As I continue to talk to faculty and staff here, I am realizing that they are just a few steps ahead with some of the other programs and through discussion and sharing we are moving all of the programs forward.  I am comforted to know that there is still tweeking to do and not everything is as rock solid as I had thought.  Maritta tells me I need to just ask more questions about things, like usual she is right.

Yesterday morning after chapel I walked up the road to watch Bill refine some palm nuts into oil.  The nuts had already been “cracked” which is the process of removing the outer skin/shell from the nut and what was left were the raw beans.  In some ways the beans looked like roasted coffee beans but 5x larger.  They were dark and a bit oily with a unique smell and he had a large pile laying out in the sun to dry.  The machine was located in a small room of a mud block hut with a tin roof and low ceiling just off the piggery.  After Bill finished a few repairs, he turned on the fuel supply (i.e. put a hose in a small bucket hanging from the ceiling and started a siphon).  A number of turns with a hand crank and the small diesel engine roared to life.  The noise in the small room was deafening, fortunately the exhaust was pointed outside the building.  

Bill began slowly feeding beans into the press to get it primed and after about 10 minutes he was able to fill the hopper and let the beans process.  Oil began running down the chute into a barrel and the “cake” or processed beans came out dry, warm and in powdered form at its appropriate exit.  Around the room were three large (55gal) barrels of oil and one barrel of “cake” from the prior day.  Each barrel is worth $250 of which 75% is profit and he can process 2-3 barrels per day.  Not a bad days wage in many countries and especially here in Liberia where the average daily wage is about $5.

You may wonder why I am so fascinated by watching this and Bills other activities?  Sound like a story out of the early 1900’s?  Bill represents what I am trying to build into these students and he represents the distance needed to go for much of Liberia.  His equipment, processes, method of collecting goods, labor and selling are no different that many of those used by farmers and industrialist in the US in the early 1900’s.  Many of the innovations and learning from that time in US history can be used here successfully, Today!  We can use our history and success to teach the core principles of business in farming and industry to help feed children, comfort widows, and educate communities.  Education and innovation are sustainable lifetime gifts each of us can share freely with those in need.