So what have i been up to these past couple of weeks. Well I had been planning on going back out to Kafori to check out some caves and then hike up to fungolimbi to see a women's groups garden. Alas that kinda fell through as the country director, safety and security coordinator and the director of agriculture and agroforestry all came to check up on the progress of the newbies. So it basically ended up with them all coming to see me on the same day. So the 23rd was a busy day for me.
So before all this went on, i was out in Kafori for the seeding of the school garden there. That was good, went off without a hitch really. not a lot of the kids showed up for the planting as there was a little confusion over all the classes availability. But we ended up having a decent number of kids there for it. It went well, the teachers there were kinda giving kevin some grief because we werent nursery planting some of the plants we were planting. All in all it isn't ubber important as we only put 2/3 seeds into the holes so it'll be easy to weed them down to the appropriate size. It will be interesting to see what goes on with it as were heading off to Thies for our In Service Training (IST) on Friday. The family kevin is staying with in Kafori is really nice and my aunt lives with them in the same compound, so its nice to see her as well. Kevin got sick that night with flu-y like symptoms but it wasn't that bad luckily as we were meeting the country director the next day. It was kinda nice cause he got to see the work we had done in Kafori with the school and meet the teachers and all that. We also were able to snag a ride back to kédougou in their car which was rather nice as well. Both the country director ad the safety and security coordinator are really nice guys so it was nice to see them. They were down here with some Department of Defense guys who checking out some projects that they were funding. Interesting bunch of guys those DoD guys. Complete opposite of PCV thats for sure, polar opposites, but nice.
Chris and Etienne (country director and S&S coordinator) came by and meet my family and busted their chops about not having my douche done and promised me that they'd make sure that it would get done before i got back from IST or else. The family i live with is the family that chris lived with when he was a PCV 20 yrs ago so he was able to really get on their case about it. But other then that the visit with them went well, they were happy with the way things were coming along and kinda reinforced my idea of a kinda volunteer with my base in Kédougou and working all around helping other volunteers in the region. Great for me as i get to bike a lot and plant a bunch of trees and make a lot of gardens. I guess the guy who was supposed to be making my douche is the big brother of my dad and therefor Chris's brother. Whatever he came over last night all pissed saying he had other things to be doing and that chris had called him. Whatever he was supposed to have this done over three months ago. But they're working on it and it should be done soonish.
Anyway after chris and Etienne left, Massaly showed up to have a chat. He is my immediate boss i guess. He's the guy in charge of the aggies and ag/fos. He was really just checking things out making sure everything was in order and then checking out how i was doing. He shot a few ideas at me about what i could possibly get up to here in kédougou, again reinforcing my roll here in the gou as helping others around the region while conducting my own projects. but it was a good little meeting even if they did kinda mess up my plans for shooting up to fungolimbi.
Other comings and goings, been going to my tutor for getting ready for my pullar exam. Going over my notes and writing out sentences for tech vocab. We'll see how it goes on the 2nd. ill be back in Pout either way so ill be able to at least practice my pullar a little bit with my host family a little to prove that I'm not completely retarded. Im sure that they must have thought that i was special needs for the time i was there. Babby Steps i suppose.
I got to meet a really good farmer the other day which was neat, Boobs took me out to visit with this guy, i guess hes a really good source for scions which is good to know even if we haven't been trained in grafting yet. IST is only a week or so away. Boobs, who's real Senegalese name is boobakar dumfuker, no joke, goes for short as boobs, so boobs dumfuker took me out to meet this guy who has a garden/orchard out on the saraya road thats probably the best I've seen in country. Great orchard and garden, badass live fence, and a fairly decent irrigation system. Trees for the future should definitely check this guy out. Demba Samara is the guys name, doesnt speak french but does speak pullar and malinke boobs and my languages. I guess that boobs used this guy for a grafting seminar he did last rainy season. The guy was real friendly and very interested in working together i think and wanted me to call him when i get back from IST.
I talked to my counterpart today, which was nice, kinda ran into him as he was leaving the sonatel building next to the road i live on and had a chat with him about what i was thinking after going to the farmers federation meeting the other week. It was an ok meeting, lots of talking and not a lot of attendance unfortunately. I did manage to get some positive out of it though as thomas the other volunteer here in kédougou from my stage has been going to these meetings and has even been going to the farmers gardens to check them out. Right now the farmers federation is trying to supply the mining companies up in Sabodela with fresh produce so that they don't have to import them from Dakar. Only problem is the Dakar prices are really cheaper and they are trying to work that out. Me thinking that this was a SED type thing didn't go and was a little skeptical of the Ag/Fo potential there, but have since come around. When we get back from IST I'm going to continue along with Thomas on his visits around the gardens of Kédougou and try to talk to the farmers and kinda gage their interest in Ag/Fo technologies. My counterpart thought that this was a good idea and i think between him and Demba id be able to do that quite well. The objective now is to get a solid plan together as to what i want ot accomplish with them and what these farmers around Kédougou would actually want from me. We'll see when i get back in a month, here comes WAIST West African Invitational Softball Tournament. Weve never won a game and that doesnt look good for me cause i dont like losing. We'll see what happens
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