Moving horizontally across Africa is apparently difficult and expensive!  As a result, in planning this trip to Africa with my travel agent, we found that it was much cheaper to go back to Europe before traveling on to my next destination.   So, instead of a short hop across the continent, my plane out of Tanzania headed north and took me back to Amsterdam, then on to Lisbon, Portugal, where I caught the once-a-week flight into the Island nation Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe.  These two islands, volcanic in origin,  lie almost directly on the equator,  about 300 kilometers off the west cost of Africa.  I had been told that they make up the smallest country in Africa, but a guide book that I have before me states that it is the second largest country, with “The Seychelles”, holding the distinction of being the smallest. 

The population of approximately 180,000 people, share a nation that is about 1000 square kilometers in size.  Wherever you go, you are almost always close to the sea.  People make a living primarily from the ocean and from agriculture in the rich volcanic soils.  Throughout its history, São Tomé has been known for its production of cocoa beans, from which chocolate is made.  Today, cocoa still stands at about 60% of total exports.

Originally a colony of Portugal, the islands gained their independence in 1975.  For the first 15 years it experimented with a form of one-party communism, but gave that up for a new constitution and a multi-party democratic government in 1990.  While still discovering its identity and place in the world, the nation is looking toward new hope in the industries of tourism and oil production.

“So, what”, you may ask, “is ADRA doing working in a beautiful, tropical island paradise, that has been called, ‘the pearl of the equator’, where the primary product is chocolate?  It seems like this would be the last place that would need ADRA’s help”! 

Unfortunately, tropical beauty and chocolate trees do not necessarily translate into health, wealth and prosperity! Partly because the world price for cocoa beans has dropped, almost to the cost of production, the average annual income in São Tomé and Príncipe is 360 dollars!  (Who sets the prices for the commodities grown by poor people?  I sometimes wonder what would happen if we were to pluck these people from their plush offices and make them work on a cocoa, coffee or tea plantation for five years making a dollar a day.  What would they set the prices at when we let them back?)   Of course when the average wage of a country is one dollar a day, you know that most of the population make much less then that, which puts them in the category of “extreme poverty”.  These are the people that ADRA helps. 

Over the next week I hope to see much of the island and witness for myself exactly what ADRA is doing to help these people break free from their prison of poverty.   “Stay tuned”.