On Sunday 1/4/09 there was the grand opening of the seed store that Hassana had opened a few months ago. It was a good event even if a lot of the farmers from the Kédougou region didn't really come. But there was a good representation from up in Saraya with Aaron bringing down 4 farmers from there and a few from the Kédougou region. It was meant to be a informal little get to know the shop and have a open discussion about problems the farmers are having and why the relationship between seller producer and supplier is so important as they all depend upon each other. When all three are in line with the others, they work very smoothly and efficiently. So that was basically how that went. Very good and Hassana is going to go to the farmers federation this coming week to have a meeting about establishing a relationship with them that would be good for us as it would open the door for us to have a better working relationship with them. It was a good meeting and it was good to have a chat with hassana about all of his plans.
So monday the family had a baptism which was interesting. see pics in facebook for details. i woke up pretty early for it as i was under the assumption that it was a morning thing and wed eat lunch there and come back. Well as it turned out we were going to sit around all morning in true Senegalese fashion. it was kinda neat as they had all the gifts out in our little communal area. Basically, in my interpretation, it seems like the baptism here seems like a mix of a a baby shower and maybe a celebration of the birth. I've never heard of the later in the states but a really hyped up baby shower is the best i can do to describe it.
So like i said we sit about till about 11 and then head over to the house of the mother for the gathering of the family. We kinda hang out there for a while get to see the baby which was cool it was a newly born so tiny. But it was a big deal for the families involved and everyone was decked out in their best boubous. it was kinda cool to see. We had a great lunch there as well. I hung out with Hassana there as well as he is part of my family here as well. We basically sat around and waited for the mother to get back from the salon as its tradition for her to get all dolled up for this and she was def done up in spades. I got to play cards with my brother and his friend from across the street. It was fun and we got a damn good meal out of it.
I left to got to the market and stop off at the regional house and get the news that my plans to go to kafori and saraya kinda get screwed. Wula Nafaa was having a meeting and as the only ag/fo guy in town at the moment, i got to go. kinda sucked but it was kinda my job so i kinda put off my trip for a day. The meeting is basically about going over what they had gotten done in nov/dec of 08' and the second day was about what they planned for in jan/feb of this year. The first meeting was kinda interesting as they were talking about the projects that they had going on, funio and baobob production adn the relationship between the middlemen and producers and things along those lines. It was a good thing that thomas went with me as his french is a lot better then mine and he was able to help me with translation. After talking to Matt about the meeting and my tentative plans to go to kafori he said it was fine if i went to kafori and missed the second day of the meeting.
So I get ready to go for my little trip out to Kafori by getting my things in order. I bought a new backpack in the market which is really cool, knockoff jansport but its a pretty good knock off in my mind. load that up with my firstaid kit, ORS, fosters clark, camera, GPS, and all the other little gadgets that i take with me places on trips. I Hang out at the regional house tues night as its the last night that a bunch of the volunteers were going to be there, kinda the last remnants of the xmas vacation. it was a good time but i kinda left it late to go home and ended up getting locked out of the compound. Not a big deal as i ended up sleeping at the regional house and going to get my stuff in the morning. I end up helping kevin, my friend whos im going to visit with carrying a bunch of his stuff. It was a good ride out to his village. He lives about 20 miles away on a lovely little road. Its good up until dimboli or right after and then its more like a trail. good times though. we make it out there in decent time Kafori is a neat little village. When we get to the 'entrance' i.e. the first couple of houses there was a lady washing her clothes and she was just so happy to see kevin that she started dancing. Really cute as it was a really old lady with not many teeth, but she was just so stoked to see kevin again. similar reactions follow at his house.
So basically i was there to check out the lay of the land for kevin's garden project he was working on with the local school. He has a couple demo plots in Kafori now that are coming along and we were able to talk to the teachers at the school about the plan for what we are going to do on Monday. I think ive already said this but being out in the village was so much more helpful for the pullar. Thats all they speak really. much more incentive for learning the lang. But it was good for checking out the situation for this project. The way the garden class is going to work is that im going work with kevin in one of the classes, and roxy, the closest volunteer to kevin will take another and steve the second closest will take another. Were going to go over why its important to have a garden the benefits and then the technical side of making it and then get the kids to make it. It should be interesting. Ive and idea for a grander idea with a similar theme but im going to have a think on it first.
But this morning i came back to Kédougou and had a nice little ride. Got some good pics on the way. Well pics of me anyway. Got some good ones on the way out with kevin and I with all his stuff. But i made good time coming back in, its great to be able to go at your own pace and just relax. I had my ipod with me too, that was really nice, rock out a little bit in the middle of no where on a bike. I think in total going there and coming back i saw 1 car and about 3 motorcycles. heavy traffic this road. It was a good outing though, always feel a little better after a nice ride where ive accomplished something. I guess im just addicted to kicking my own ass on a bike/running, its fun.
Well today is the Islamic new year so i guess interesting happenings will be going on. So i should be off, ill write again soon, oh yeah been in site for 2 months, man time flies!
No comments:
Post a Comment