and Djakaba, where the last grafting seminar had just finished, is brand new and you can practically fly on it. This tarmaced piece of heaven allows you to drift off to your own little world where you're doing whatever you want. For me that could be anything from going for a ride back home to relax, racing in the Tour de France (and getting smoked by Lance Armstrong and his successor Alberto Contador, both huge badasses this year by the way) or just getting away from site to enjoy the much anticipated arrival of the rainy season. The change that has taken place because of that rain is truly phenomenal. This ride, while to the north of Kédougou, completely blindsided me in that I remember quite clearly riding that same route after install and being very put off of this region to the north. Sarraya? Malinke, NO pulaar, no thank you! Ugly language and Ugly land, not for me. The Malinke's can keep it for all I care as I just didn't see what they saw
in it. How wrong was I. Two different worlds and its absolutely beautiful now.This ride, the recent mosquito net distribution in that same area, and a few other recent events have reaffirmed my desire to continue to explore and enjoy this completely amazing region as well as the rest of the country. The transformation from a blurry non dispirit brown haze down a bumpy makeshift dirt construction road, to a vibrant overpowering blast of green along a brand new smooth super highway was amazing. Maybe its not a super highway but it is pretty badass in these parts. With just a small amount of time passing, the complete make up of this area as well as my mentality has been completely reversed. Saraya and Kédougou as a whole have been transformed into this green paradise that I was warned about when we demisted down here almost a year ago now. Of course I naively said 'yea Im sure it'll get greener then this', as it was pretty green then. Naive like I said. Its amazing how time has flown by since then, as things have gone up and down since those days of PST.
With the completion of these grafting seminars here in Kédougou, I think a number of things have been learned. The trainer we used for all of these seminars, Demba (not the one we all know and love up in Dah-Kar), but Demba Samoura of Kédougou, was great. Absolutely wonderful resource for these seminars as he speaks Wolof, Pulaar, and Malinke. It is an interesting mix of languages and his ability to teach mango farmers the techniques of grafting as well as how to out plant and set up an orchard is irreplaceable. The four sites we used for this were well spaced within the region, with the goal being trying to cover main hubs throughout region. The first day was out in Dimboli and after a few kinks went really smoothly, the local militia even showed up, oh wait that was just the Eaux et Foret agent who loves to look like he is out on patrol stoping the guinean army from invading! Got to love those uniforms and the complete lack of local language skills. Everyone was really interested and I feel like they really learned a lot from the practice they received in Momadou Diallo's field (yea theres only one MD in these neck of the woods). As arranged, at the end of the seminar, everyone received about 10 scions to take back to their fields to graft their own mangos. This was twofold in importance as they got to teach others in their villages as well graft their own trees. A couple of the guys who came, left immediately after lunch to go back to Fungolimbi and their fields to get started grafting immediately. Development at work, craziness!
The second seminar was out in Thjibedji the next day which I did not go to as two other volunteers were there. I hear that everything went smoothly there with Jordan Welty and Sheila McAtee having everything more than under control. That brings us up to my home site and the seminar there. I think it got progressively smoother for Demba as the week went on as he got better with his Pulaar, he is a native Malinke speaker. So Between my counterpart who attended, Demba, and my host dad, we had a explosion of knowledge and personalities at work. It was awesome! My dad was a Sodefedex
agent for like 20yrs and has a radio show here in Kédougou for agriculture and is a big personality down here. Everywhere I go people know my dad its crazy and very helpful for work. Karumba, my counterpart, has been working with Peace Corps for at least 6yrs and knows about every technique we teach. So with these three guys leading the seminar every possible aspect that could have been covered, was, and by qualified people as well. Fertilizer, out-planting, furadin, orchard setup, windbreaks, live-fencing, like I said anything and everything. It was great. Did I mention my host family loves hosting people? Oh yea they love it, food to die for, tea served by my sisters throughout the discussion as well as ice water, absolutely top notch. Yea I live in a bigger town and it has its pluses. More than anything I owe my family for being so cool about this whole day, they kicked ass.The demonstration in my counterparts field, which is literally across the road from my house, went really well. We started off with some practice on some branches of a huge mango tree in the center of his field and then the practical implementation on young mangos once people got the hang of the technique. The tongue and groove technique isn't that hard when described like the main branch is bambugoling the scion, thats carrying it on its back to non Pulaars. It clicked really well with everyone when he said that cause they could picture a baby strapped onto its mothers back and then replicate it so the scion wouldn't fall! Great time out in the field and I think everyone had a good time and learned a lot.
Had someone told me a year ago that id be in charge of a seminar like this I would have said they were crazy. Well to be honest this was all Boobs Dunfuxhers project, thats Andy Jondahl to anyone who isn't yet familiar with Mr. Boobakar. Some how my name ended up on the SPA grant form and then Andy left, so the Ag/Fo's and Aggies of the region were called into action.(maybe ill get reimbursed for fronting the entire budget soon, that'd be greeeaaat) Without
Kevin, Sheila, Jordan, Aaron and Kellen, it would not have been possible to complete this project. Progress has been made this year, I definitely learned how to graft more efficiently during this week, some really misguided folk seem to think my Pulaar is actually half way decent, and I have a better understanding on what is needed to organize a project like this. A year can change a lot and I think through the course of a volunteers first year of service everyone goes through different changes, ups and downs, and trying moments. But a years halfway to the finish line and its all downhill from there so to speak. So it can only get better after this right? Ill say yes, ignore the Talibes, half starved participants of Rhamadan, and bleating goats and sheep. Those goats and sheep are probably just Kevin and Aaron impersinations anyway.
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