Norma's Disturbing Letter from Jos: August 18

Vegetable orders for Thursday 25 August

Thursday, August 18, 2011 2:27 AM

From: Norma, Zamani Farms (Jos)

Hello customers,

Last week was bitter-sweet for us at Zamani Farms. Our customers have been returning, new people are joining our mailing list, and things on the farm are growing well. We had high hopes that after a long period of difficulties we were getting our farm back on track to full productivity and hopefully also profitability. Then this past weekend crisis erupted again in Jos, driving away all the sweet taste in our mouth and evoking memories of the horrible year 2010, when blood flowed freely in Plateau state, including on our farm, and ruined all our plans and blew away our dreams.

On Sunday afternoon, an achaba rider was killed on one neighbourhood of Jos -- the body was discovered in a stream. This was followed by a couple of retaliation killings, and the town was thrown into panic. Sunday night there was an attack on three villages very close to our farm, during which 11 people were killed including 7 members of one family. The attackers have yet to be identified, but most of the eyewitnesses said they were wearing army uniforms. On Monday morning when I tried to go to the farm, I found many of the roads blocked. At the junction to our farm road I met a mob of wild youth armed with sticks, machetes and other weapons, all obviously high on drugs, looking for suspicious people to kill. I managed to get to the farm, and found that none of our workers had been able to come, so of course no work was done that day, or the day after. Then I found out that two of the children killed at Heipang village (where Jos airport is located) were relatives of the woman who grows the beef tomatoes and some of the red cabbages that we supply you. She had closed her farm in order to go to bury the bodies in their home town, in the Langtang area of the state, so she couldn't pick tomatoes for us. We then had to scramble around to find nice tomatoes for you, which we eventually managed to do.

The main road to the southern part of the state was blocked for all of Monday by protesting villagers at Heipang and no one could pass. Monday is the day of the main potato market in the state, at Mai Katako, but no one could get there from Jos, and no one could bring potatoes into Jos, so we had problems getting nice potatoes for you.

The Hausa dealers who bring garlic and ginger to the major vegetable market were afraid to come out, so these items are missing from this week's order.

So once again, life in Jos is back to existence on the edge. We can only hope that these events are aberrations, but our previous experience tells us that more such incidents are likely to follow, because it seems obvious that these are politically instigated to deliberately cause chaos in our environment. I don't know when a real solution will be found.

Meanwhile, we are trying to concentrate as much as we can on our farm work, and despite the numerous weeds that sprang up in our workers' absence, we do have lovely vegetables for you for next week.

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As I am writing this, on Thursday morning, things seem to be settling down. We were originally not sure whether we would be able to deliver vegetables this week, but yesterday we managed to pick and pack up your orders, and at the moment Audu and other delivery staff  will be on their way to Abuja any time from now. So barring unforeseen circumstances you should expect your orders as usual today.

In the midst of all the confusion in Jos Audu managed to lose his handset and is in the process of getting his number back. So if you have an order coming today, please make a note of the number ...

Thank you in advance for all of your support and patronage. Our experience during the crisis of the past year and a half is that our customers are the most patient, understanding and supportive set of people we could ever hope to find anywhere. We are so appreciative of all you have done for us on the farm. On our own part we will try to fulfill your expectations of lovely vegetable produce, if only we can manage to have peace and some good weather.

More farm news next week.

Regards,

Norma