Namibia 11 April 2006 - Mechanics without borders operating in Namibia

Don't worry, this is not Betsy! We visited Jeremiah's farm 11 April and my uncle had to do some maintenance on one of the tractors. We have all heard of Doctors without borders and we came up with a sister organisation "Mechanics without Borders". The above picture shows one out of four totally ruined kingbolts (or the lack of them). Jomar has been working with tractors since 1967 and knew that he could help Jeremiah so he could continue driving this Fiat for another two years or more. This tractor came from Europe into Namibia and it is another example of exploitation of poor local farmers in Africa. He bought it for horribly 50.000 Namibian dollars, something that is worth a little over 10.000 in Europe. This is not unique for agricultural equipment, cars are dumped in Europe and brought to Africa to be sold for twice or three times the value overseas.