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International Leadership Seminar for State Officers - South Africa 2014 was a ten day trip from January 3-14 learning about the agriculture of South Africa through tours of farms and agricultural facilities. It was also a chance to learn about the culture of South Africa and some serious challenges facing their society. Here is a look at each day of the trip through a picture and short summary of the day. More information for Brandon's online journal can also be found inside the newsletter. See what our daily adventures were like in South Africa!
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International Leadership Seminar for State Officers, National FFA Organization
South Africa 2014
An Experience of a Lifetime
“We celebrate this day, today, because we know some did not live to see it.”
January 3-14 Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve
More inside!
At a crocodile farm on our last day in South Africa, there were
several turtles that were just lying around the property. They had no problem being picked up
and posing for a picture!
Summis:
Pg. 2
When I first signed up for the International Leadership
Seminar for State Officers (ILSSO) to South Africa in
early August, I was obviously very excited to take
advantage of such a great opportunity. It never really hit
me that I was going to South Africa until we were on
the flight there for 16 hours.
The experience itself was amazing, but again I wasn’t
truly immersed into the culture of South Africa until we
were in the middle of an impoverished neighborhood in
Soweto. Kliptown was truly an
inspirational community of
thousands of citizens. The
experience that our group had in
Kliptown forever changed us.
2
We heard the quote twice in the same day.
“We celebrate this day, today, because we
know some did not live to see it.” Sabina
Khoza said it when she told to us about the free
education her students receive and how she has taken
several students under her wing that are orphaned because
of HIV/AIDS. Our group heard the quote for the second
time that day at Kliptown when Thulani Madondo, named
one of CNN’s Top 10 Heroes, spoke of their community.
When several men in the community gave a performance
for us of singing and dancing, I constantly pondered why
they were not on The X Factor or America’s Got Talent.
That’s when I realized the difference between opportunity
in the United States and South Africa. There is none in
South Africa for those who are living at the bottom. They
could be celebrities in the United States, but they don’t
have the opportunity to make it big.
So now the question is, how can I share the message of the
Kliptown community? How do I share my newfound
knowledge of agriculture? How do I celebrate what I have
and help others appreciate what they have as well? How do
I give opportunity to the people in this community even
when I am 9500 miles away? Right now, I don’t know.
But, I can share what I have learned, and possibly, inspire
others to make a change as well.
Welcome to South Africa-- South Africa is a beautiful country filled with beautiful culture. There are definitely a lot more places that we wish were possible to visit, but that just might be motivation for us to come back and visit the country again. This newsletter will provide you with a daily highlight picture and caption to briefly describe some of the things that I captured in South Africa. Keep watch for information on a presentation that will be happening in the next month or two about my experiences! You can read my online journal at http://bit.ly/1hyA9Hx for a full summary of the adventures I had in South Africa. The journal takes you through my reflection after each day, so you can see what was happening one day at a time.
So, what’s the point? The point of this newsletter is to share what I learned. I didn’t just have an eye-opening experience about the way people live in South Africa. I also learned about the different goods produced in their country and the production methods used. One of the biggest similarities, but yet still a difference, is the use of technology. For example, the process of sending grain through a grain elevator in South Africa is exactly the same as the United States. However, the testing of a sample is all done by hand, which is more commonly done by mechanism in the United States. Here’s your chance to learn about agriculture and culture in South Africa, and maybe you’ll be inspired to take a visit to see the similarities and differences for yourself.
cont.
3
Special Feature: Picture of the Day
The first full day of our South African adventure
started with a trip to the Tshwane Produce Market in
Pretoria. “Tshwane” is a new name for the city of
Pretoria that is becoming more popular in South
Africa, similar to how New Amsterdam eventually
changed its name to New York City a couple
centuries ago.
We then visited a Sakata tomato seed facility and had
lunch on a nearby private safari ranch. I even had the
opportunity to take a picture with a few giraffes and a
couple of zebras! After lunch, we received a brief tour
of a seed processing facility that is owned by Sakata
and then headed to Pretoria for a short city tour.
During the tour, we had the chance to see a very
recently erected statue of Nelson Mandela and show
our respect for his life’s work.
Sunday, Jan 5th The only thing we did on our first night in South
Africa is go out for supper. Many of us were
exhausted from sitting on a plane for 16 hours! I
had a smoked salmon appetizer, seafood platter
(pictured above), and a small glass of ice cream for
supper. For each meal, I always made sure I was
not drinking tap water. South Africa is one of only
seven countries in the world that filters their water,
but I did not want to take any risks because I had
not gotten any immunizations.
I always drank liquids that were pre-bottled, and I
even managed to not drink a single can of pop
during the entire trip. I did, however, try sparkling
water. I quickly figured out that I am just a normal
water drinker! They call bottled water in South
Africa, “still water.” It took me a couple of failed
attempts to figure that out at supper on our first
night when I asked for bottled water.
The first two nights we stayed in a very nice hotel
in Pretoria. It was easy to draw comparisons
between the hotel industries in the United States
and South Africa. It was easy to see many
similarities to the United States on the first day, but
as the trip continued, many stark differences
appeared in South Africa.
Monday, Jan 6th
4
Our next day of adventures in South Africa, we went
to Senwes in Klerksdorp. Senwes has formed a
partnership with Bunge, who happened to be one of
the major supporters of our FFA group. Senwes and
Bunge are currently developing grain and oilseed
operations for farmers that supply the country’s market
and export goods to other countries in South Africa. It
was a good chance for our group to show appreciation
for Bunge’s support and learn more about Senwes.
After our trip to Senwes’s headquarters in South
Africa, our group split into three smaller groups to visit
a Bonsmara cattle operation and a grain elevator.
Wednesday, Jan 8th
Tuesday, Jan 7th
Our small group first stopped at the Bonsmara cattle
farm, which had nearly 5,000 head of cattle – a large
portion of the 120,000 Bonsmara cattle in the entire
country. In South Africa, most bulls are not castrated
because the beef cattle are butchered young enough so
that it does not make a difference in the meat quality.
We stopped at a grain elevator after the cattle farm.
The mechanisms and processes of the grain elevator
were very similar to the U.S., but there was about a
ten-year gap in technological methods. After the visits
were over, we headed back to Senwes for a large group
picture!
We started out this very sunny day with a stop at a feedlot
of over 26,000 cattle. Over 50% of the cattle were a
crossbred of Brahma, which is a beef breed that is
commonly used in dry, arid climates. The operation was
one of the largest in South Africa, but the biggest feedlot in
South Africa has nearly 125,000 head of cattle!
After the feedlot, we visited an Ayrshire dairy farm of about
500 milking cows. A dairy nutritionist at the farm and an
Ayrshire breed expert informed us about the operation and
the dairy industry in South Africa. They even informed us
about a recently developed enzyme that turns lactose into
glucose for those cannot drink milk because of lactose
allergies.
We enjoyed lunch on a nearby safari reservation ranch and
then made our way back to Johannesburg to visit a John
Deere parts distribution warehouse. Before we arrived, we
had to stop at the hotel we stayed at the night before, and as
we were leaving, our bus hit a car! (Don’t worry; it wasn’t
our fault.) We made it to the dealership on time, which was
an exact replica of any John Deere warehouse in the world,
including the United States – a little taste of home away
from home.
5
Thursday, Jan 9th
Friday, Jan 10th
Early in the morning, a large part of group woke up to watch the
sunrise over the mountains. The game reserve was beautiful, and I
would compare it to a cabin resort in Minnesota, except with a safari
theme. The sunrise made me think of home a little bit and how the
sunrise is the same anywhere in the world, even in South Africa.
Our group’s day started with a tour at a citrus farm with 1000 acres
of lemon, orange, and grapefruit trees. We were surprised to
discover that some of their trees were bearing fruit after two years of
age because in the United States, fruit trees don’t typically bear
edible fruit until at least six years of age. Our group then toured their
packaging facilities and walked through the entire process from the
production of limes to the final packaged product.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at Kruger National Park, the first
proclaimed park of South Africa in 1926. We traveled by coach bus
through the park reserve and saw several wild animals including
lions, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, bamboo monkeys, wildebeests, and
more animals. After the park tour, we traveled to a country lodge to
stay the night at. There we enjoyed another cultural meal filled with
good food, as well as lots of dancing and singing from some of the
local people.
One early breakfast in the morning and we were on our way to
the CSIR International Convention Centre to meet with a few
agricultural ambassadors from the United States embassy, who
briefed us on what the Foreign Agricultural Service is doing in
the South Africa and what the trade relationship is with the
United States. South Africa’s agriculture is constantly improving
with higher outputs, record high exports, and increasing imports.
After our visit, we traveled to a first-generation farm to see
agriculture in action. The farmer owned 42,000 acres of land for
gain and livestock on pieces of land that were nearly 60 miles
away from the center of his operation. That would be similar to
driving across the entire metropolitan area in Minnesota to reach
the edge of his farmland.
After our experiences on the farm, we enjoyed lunch on the farm
in his wife’s home restaurant before driving to small village called
Ohrigstad in the very mountainous region of South Africa. We
stayed on a private game reserve with a special sable project,
went on a safari in an open cart to see some wild animals, and
finished the night by participating in a traditional “boma” dinner
of food, dancing, singing, and other festivities.
6
The last full day of our trip was by far the best day out of
all of them. The experiences I gained in this day were very
valuable and things that have forever changed my life. I
highly recommend reading my journal from South Africa
at: bit.ly/1hyA9Hx to read about my full experiences.
Our morning started with a visit to Sabina Khoza’s
agricultural training centre for local people near Soweto.
Sabina was named Female Farmer of the Year in 2004,
and her centre produces 200,000 broilers each year and
houses 175,000 laying hens.
Saturday, Jan 11th
Today was our day of sightseeing and soaking in the
beauty of South Africa. We started a long bus ride back
to Pretoria and along the way made stops to see some of
the sights in the mountainous regions. We visited
Elizabeth Falls, the Blyde River Canyon (pictured
above), and Bourke’s Luck Potholes. The rivers
received their name from an old South African legend.
Many years ago, a couple were traveling together when
the husband decided to join a group in search of gold
along a river. He told his wife to wait at a river for ten
days and if he did not return, something had happened
to him and she should move on. The wife waited by the
river with no sign from her husband. She eventually
gave up hope, naming the stream, the Treur River, the
“River of Suffering.” She eventually moved to a nearby
river and stayed for a few days. In the middle of the
night, her husband appeared out of the forest and told
her that he had gotten delayed. Because the wife was
overjoyed from being reunited, she named this stream,
the Blyde River, known as the “River of Joy.”
After visiting these rivers, we continued on our way and
stopped to eat lunch on a farm in Belfast with over
4,000 sheep, cattle, corn and soybeans. Two of the
people from our group in South Dakota ended up
knowing some of the people on the farm and connected
with them before returning to our hotel for the night.
Sunday, Jan 12th
“Plan your work, and work your plan.” That is just one of the many pieces of advice Sabina left us
before we had to move on. We then ate at a restaurant in a
middle-class neighborhood and rode the bus to a
“surprise” the tour guides had for us. That surprise would
forever change many of us as we entered into an
impoverished neighborhood known as Kliptown. We were
greeted by Thulani Madondo, a CNN Top 10 Hero of
2012, learned about the Kliptown Youth Program, and
had so many experiences that won’t even begin to fit in
half of a page. Today was a day I will never forget, and I
highly recommend you read more about it in my online
journal about South Africa.
Monday, January 13th For the final time in South Africa, we started the morning with breakfast
and bused our group out for the final day of two agricultural tours. The first
stop was a crocodile farm in the town of Brits, just outside of Pretoria. The
Inyoni Estate housed over 8000 Nile crocodiles on the farm. We learned that
an older female can lay up to 90-100 eggs during a mating season with a 75%
hatching rate. We then visited a vegetable farm of squash, garden beets,
carrots, sweet potatoes, and onions for our last stop in South Africa. Once we
arrived, we had a chance to join the workers in their harvest of carrots and then
walk through a packaging house to see how carrots end up at their finished
product. After washing our hands, it was time to say goodbye to our final visit
and head to the Johannesburg airport before flying back to the United States.
Want to know more about my trip or international travels? Contact me at [email protected]. I
would be more than willing to have a conversation
about my experiences in another country.
This trip was one of the greatest experiences of
my life, but it would not have been possible
without financial contributions from my
community and many great organizations.
Thank you so much for your support of my
continued education in agriculture!
Brandon Roiger 1101 1st Avenue South Sleepy Eye, MN 56085