It was over 40 years ago that an up and coming band from Ireland included a song simply called “40” on their new album. The lyrics weren’t penned by U2 – they were written about 3,000 years ago and are in the Bible as “Psalm 40”.

I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry 
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay

How long to sing this song….

The song has been going around in my head this week because we are playing a waiting game. We have three deliveries which we need to arrive this week: a container with all our Coolrun pods which seems to have got a bit bogged down (the miry clay!) at customs in Tanzania; refrigeration units which the tracker says have reached Johannesburg – Africa, but still 1,000 miles away; and some vital metal parts from China which have made it to customs in Malawi. The song talks about waiting patiently but this has never been a strong point of mine.

The container when I last saw it in Northampton.

My Malawian friends here have a different attitude to time and are much more patient. Farmers especially, understand that growing takes time and they wait patiently for the harvest. For many, life is hard and they have very little, yet they are patient. This morning I went for a meeting with someone and I rushed to discuss the business in hand. He stopped me and said, “So how are you today?” It was a reminder that there’s always time for politeness and friendliness and sometimes it seems we have lost that in the West with our busyness and deadlines.

Nursery bed with fast growing onion seedlings
Everything gone to be planted out in the fields and the seedling nursery re-planted

We are, however, bringing a bit of positive change to farming here. We have recently introduced a new variety of onions which will mature in just 44 days from planting out, compared with 80 days for the traditional variety. We are building the awareness with farmers and trying to keep up with demand. I watched our staff team harvest all the seedlings yesterday and today they have replanted the beds with fresh seed. I appreciate the patient waiting of the farmers but getting to harvest – and therefore payday – quicker is only a good thing.

Meantime, I’m chasing all our deliveries through email and whatsapp and humming a U2 tune: How long to sing this song?