Businesses of Namumu

As much as I would enjoy spending all my time frolicking across the African Savannah, there's a fair amount of work to be done. Namumu currently runs five income-generating operations: fishing, carpentry, metal fabrication, farming and pig-rearing. The businesses are young but are off to a decent start. My job will be to help supervise them and make them better.

What's that, you ask? What makes me qualified to do this job? Well, that's a good question. I have a degree in Economics, and it seems as though that was qualification enough for them. Real world business experience is over-rated anyway if you ask me...

Here are a few pictures along with descriptions of each operation:

As of right now,  fishing is the most profitable business for Namumu. The orphanage owns two boats (one of which is pictured on the right). At night, eight fishermen, four on each boat, all employees of Namumu, take the boats out on the lake, Lake Kariba, and haul in as many Kapenta fish as they can. Kapenta fish are very small, no more than a few inches in length. On a good night they can haul in 50 kg's of fish. While this boat does not currently have a name, my vote will be for "Jenny". Forrest would have wanted it that way. Other suggestions are welcome.

Farming appears to be the Namumu operation with the most potential for growth. While they currently employ a head gardener and have about seven or eight acre's of farmable land, they are not yet farming to their full potential. Thanks to my months toiling away under the sun, prodded on by the cracking whip of Rob (or is it Nelson?) and Jo Pendergraph on their farm in Powhatan, I feel like I will be able to contribute a few new ideas and methods to the Namumu operation. We're really going to step things up. Here you see a Namumu student doing the daily watering. Stop mugging for the camera and get back to work, you lazy bum!

Note: The Pendergraphs are actually very nice people and run a heck of an operation. Check them out here.

Carpentry is doing well at Namumu, and thanks to the large demand for its products from people in the surrounding villages and in the town of Siavonga it is likely to expand. Here, Namumu's lone carpenter, Rafiki (not only did he share a name with the monkey from Disney's the Lion King, but also his demeanor and general outlook on life as well), is hard at work. He crafts tables, chairs, bed frames and a variety of other pieces. Here I believe he is constructing a wedding altar...or what Gaylord Focker might refer to as a "Hoopa". 

Nearby you will find the metal fabrication area.  A good demand exists for these metal products as well. The main welder and his assistant, Vincent, seen here, make door frames, window frames, chairs and desks. And, interestingly enough, the Namumu metal workers were the ones that designed Shaquille O'Neill's metal suit in the hit movie "Steel". Bizarre, but true.

Finally, there's pig-rearing, an operation that is, in all honestly, barely breaking even. Namumu sells whole pigs to surrounding villagers, or slices them up and sells pig products in the nearby markets. There are a few large, older pigs that do the breeding, and somwhere around 40 smaller pigs that will eventually be sold, some of which you see here. They smell bad.