Delicious Refreshing Hot Water and Mango Flowers

Back in Senegal! Its been a while since I was here but its nice to be back. I just got back from a top working training that another volunteer hosted out by his village this morning. Both the mango flowers and refreshing hot water came into play on this ride out and back.

The training was in Mbanding which is about 30km away from Kedougou next to Ibel. what we were teaching was the technique of top working. What that means, is basically lopping all of the branches off a large developed mango tree or any number of other fruit trees during the dry season with the aim to graft a more desirable scion onto the new sprouts that will then grow out of where the large branches were later in the year. Since you cant graft onto anything much bigger than a thick pencil, this is the only way to introduce a desired scion onto a the large tree without grafting hundreds of if not thousands of branches.

That is basically what grafting is in a nutshell. You usually graft young trees, as they are no thicker than a thick pencil, with scions from a tree that has larger fruit, is more hardy in terms of resistance to disease, or has some other desirable trait that your current tree lacks. You make a small diagonal cut through all the layers of tissue of the mango branch and insert the scion and then wrap up the whole thing with plastic and wait for the scion to take and sprout! Thats grafting in a nut shell in its simplest form, the tongue and groove method.

So basically you lop off all the large branches and wait! We covered the lopping and pruning aspects of the equation today with a group of farmers who had previously attended one of the grafting trainings that we host every year. The idea being that we are training up a group of so to speak 'advanced' tree farmers to be resources for the farmers in the region without the input of Peace Corps. Have to have an exit strategy right! In that vein we have been using locals as the facilitators for most of the trainings that weve been hosting. Its one thing hearing how to do something technical from a random white guy thats been in africa a fraction of the local farmers life time and a completely different thing to hear it from another local that is an expert in the field. Thats all mental, im not even going to start with how much easier it is for Karumba, our trainer, to explain something in one of his native tongues! Lets just say my pulaar leaves alot to be desired!

We had about 8-10 farmers at the training and most had worked with Peace Corps in some capacity in the past. Most already knew how to graft, plant fruit trees, and manage an orchard. They came from about 5 different villages from around the area and were all very enthusiastic for the training. We started off with a basic pruning demonstration as most local farmers have this extreme dislike of cutting off branches from their trees! Its because they see that as a potential source of fruit even though its competing with the tree as a whole and in the end weakening the fruit output.

After this we moved onto the actual top working. The reason we started with the pruning is that even while we were doing the top working it was necessary to prune down the trees to the appropriate size and number of main branches. Then we instructed them on how to correctly lop off the branches so the cut wasn't open to the sun. All in all it didnt take that long and we were able to practice a couple times with Karumba Frank and myself helping and then a couple times with the participants doing it by themselves.

While the participants were doing the analyzing and lopping by themselves, Karumba, Frank and myself were able to tour through the field we were having the training in. It was a great field! Its owned by a guy called Mangajan Diallo. Mangajan is one of the true remarkable cases for a Peace Corps volunteer to come across. He is soooo ready to do whatever you tell him in regards to techniques and new ways of farming or managing his trees. It was in another one of his fields that we had the grafting training earlier this year for this area of Kedougou. Most folk would look aghast at the suggestion of cutting off lots of branches from their fruit trees, almost as if you had asked them to give up their first born child! Its truly bizarre and wonderful that he is so willing to do the right things in regards to managing his orchard. While he has lots of work left to turn his field into a beautiful demonstration field, this particular gentleman i have complete faith in!

After touring his field, and with the participants having finished up their solo lopping, we all sat back down under the four large mango trees that create an almost cave like feel to discuss what all we had learned today. One of the farmers from mbanding gave a great summary of what all we had talked about and how it should be implemented in his field. After this Karumba, whos main work is with planting living fences, gave his boilerplate talk on live fencing adn how if your field isnt well protected all that hard work you just put in for grafting or plowing or whatever you do in your field is for nothing. There was a few guys there who are working with Karumba and I on live fencing and chimed in echoing what Karumba had said. Thats another part of Senegalese meetings, theres lots of echoing. Everyone has to throw their 2cents in even if it agreeing and repeating what the guy before them has said! It gets old but this time wasnt terribly bad.

Before we closed out the session Frank and I spoke a bit about what we were trying to accomplish with the training. Our goal was to create a network of advanced tree farmers in the region that act as local relais for tree work in their particular sub region or zone. We are trying to compile lists of advanced farmers throughout the region and keep them on record in the regional capital at the Peace Corps house for future volunteers to utilize. We also talked about how we have come up with a yearly schedule that has all the different seminars and trainings we would like to host in conjunction with these advanced farmers. Top working and pruning was the first of year and goes from seed collection to tree nursery creation all the way to out planting and plant protection. Everyone seemed interested and only time will tell how well our new approach to tree work in the region will pan out!

After this it was getting towards the hot part of the day and i had to get going as I had biked out from Kedougou in the morning and didn't fancy slogging through the midday heat to get back. We all say our goodbyes and go our separate ways. Franks village was only a few kilometeres away so he didn't have terribly far to go and most the farmers were in the same boat. I was the only one with a relatively long distance to go. I take off and immediately realize that theres no way I wont be biking through the hottest part of the day and will just have to bite the bullet about that. I had to stop a couple times along the way as I had noticed some thorny trees that I wanted to get pictures of as i thought they would be great for live fencing. As it turns out, 2 of the 5 species that I spotted on the way out I knew pretty much on site and the others i have a pretty good idea what they were! What that means is that there are literally hundreds of these trees along the road and a plethora of seed sources for us.

Finding the trees was a great mood booster for a very hot bike ride. And here is where the title comes from! I had about 2/3rds a liter and a quarter bottle of water left for the ride and it was cooked by the time I was ready to drink it! While being in america, you forget about that. Water gets hot fast while your'e biking along, and by the time im usually ready to drink it just doesn't matter! Hot water is water! Its really weird drinking down hot water in the blazing sun but you need fluids. So hence delicious refreshing hot water!

The second part of the title comes from the fact that lots of the mango trees here are starting to flower. Now the mango flower isn't really a flower in the sense of a rose or dog wood bloom or something like that you might. The blooms are rather odd looking. Almost tentacle like. The best part about them is the smell! While biking through a couple villages, the road is lined with mango trees and with most in bloom, you end up getting a blast of fruity perfume as you ride under their overstretched arms. So not only do you get to ride in shade, its wonderful smelling shade! You don't even notice the little children yelling toubob give me a present.

That bring us up to the right now, what else is going on in my life at the moment........? Well i was out in Dindefelo to check up on my project there and to see what all need to happen to get things running smoothly there. Looking to get the well digger going at the well again and blasting through the rock thats blocking the second well with a jackhammer that someone in town has. Basins and garden beds are the next step after that, so im looking to get those couple things going so my work there can begin in earnest. Thats the project I extended to work on after all!

I'm biking out to Kafori tomorrow to check out the progress with Kevin's case de santé. I had a meeting with the mason who that is in charge of the work and he said that everything was about done, just need one of the last installments of cash to get more materials. But ill be meeting with the mason and the president of the community rural tomorrow while im out there to hash out whats left and when it'll be done. So thats potentially exciting that that project could be done soon.

So thats about all I have for now. Im off to Kolda for xmas and the new year. I'll have more for you all than.

Post en route...

new post coming soon...

Update thats loooong

Ok, I know, been a long time. What can I say, Ill try my best to stay on top of this. Hey I think that the time lapse between this and the last post was less than the last lapse! So thats an improvement right? So what have I been up to. In the words of Matt McLaughlin, a little of this and a little of that. He has also left during this period of time. So it looks like the last entry was in may, so ill kick in around the start of June.

June - So June was a interesting month cause i was back in the States for my friends wedding for about a week and then it was my birthday right after that. So all in all I didn't spend that much time in Senegal working. I spent my 25th b-day on the beach with Meg. Great time and I look forward to having the opportunity to go back sometime. When I did end up back in Kédougou, it was still tree nursery season and constant check up was needed for the farmers I was working with.

This included the Master Farmer Site ive been working on with Hassana Diallo in Dindefello. I think by this point in time we had most of the fencing up? I cant remember when we finally got all the fencing material 'officially' done.

As always all of the travel I was doing inside Kédougou was via bike. Im getting pretty good at blasting out to Dindefello and Kafori. Its a great way to relax and get away from pretty much everything! No major problems with the bikes, both the house bikes and my own. Ive been way more lax about working on house bikes recently as we are lacking the parts needed to really be efficient in keeping them up and running. Alot of the problems stem from the rear cassettes being worn out or the rear derailleur being worn out or just the whole chain derailleur cassette system being all out of whack. Needless to say when im not there to fiddle around with the bikes when the desire takes me, they all go to shit.

July - So July was more interesting from a readers standpoint. We had the 4th of July part in Kgou, the 4th of July 4k run, getting the grafting trainings set up, helping kev pass along his Case de Santé project in Kafori to me, Kevs going away do, and then Joe the Bike Guy coming down for a bike fixing tourny.

Every year the region of Kédougou hosts the 4th of July party for all the volunteers in the country. This year was no exception! We had alot of work to do to get everything ready at the regional house. building corn hole sets, beer pong tables, organizing the tents, sound system, food, booze, everything! Its a huge undertaking as the person in charge has to delegate alot of jobs out. I was def NOT that person! I helped out where needed and then had to organize the 2nd annual 4k on the 4th run! Thomas and I came up with this idea last year and felt that it turned out really well. Because of last years success we decided to get it going again! The race was organized with the help of the local sports minister, a guy by the name of Fofana. Really nice guy and for the past two years has been very helpful in setting things up, getting in touch with all the appropriate powers that be, and all around good guy. The race was a success, some of us had to get there early to set up the tent that we rent for the party. We use it at the start of the race for shade and once the race is over take it back to the regional house and set it up there. So we have to set that up and then get the sound board, that again we take to the house for the party there, all hocked up as well. We play music for the race, which isnt very long, and then give out the prize for the winner. Once all that was set up we marshaled everyone who was participating, that being some PCV's, the local military, and the police and fire departments. For the last two years all three groups have kicked the crap out of us! Its all good fun though and the exposure that Peace Corps gets is a good little PR exercise.

While its a great race, the past two years weve had problems with people cheating. Its really funny because there is a police car that runs with the leaders. Both years weve had people cut the course as its just a big loop of the two main roads into town. There are lots of cross streets that cut through that all the participants know about. so they cut a 1/3rd of the course off and pop out where the lead pack is. This pisses them off and it generally creates a little push fest with tripping involved. Its really short and generally doesnt last that long cause everyone knows they cheated and they kinda ignore them. Slight blemish on the race but we think weve got a solution for next year!

After the 4th festivities, that were great. It was back to work in a sense. I was still trying to get everything working with the Master farmer demo site. But Hassana was working with an American group called walking tree at the time, so the students who were participating in that group helped out with the planting of live fencing along the fence line of the demonstration field. Walking Tree is the group and they take American High School students to different countries around the world to experience different cultures by participating in the local community or something like that. They helped out and it was very much appreciated. The species they helped plant were the baby Agave sisalana plants and the Ziziphus mauritiana plants. This was just one of the sites i was working at during the planting season. I was also working with my counterparts nursery creation initiative in several other villages around the region. The best of these being Syllacounda where we now have a badass demonstration field and very motivated farmers! We also now have a PCV there, which was really lucky and explain how that happened a little later.

Also of importance in my work from July was the passing of my buddy Kevins Case de Santé project on to my work load. He was getting ready to finish up his service and move on to Cote d'Ivoire for his next job, but his project was just getting ready to start. We had to meet with the President of the Rural Community (the PCR for short) and the mason to get everyone on the same playing field for the details for the project. We got together at the PCRs house in Kédougou and discussed all the details of the plan. It was good to meet with the PCR to create a good contact in the area. It was really good to get that out of the way as it was one of the last things that Kevin was working on hashing out the details of before he left. We threw Kevin a going away party around this time as well. It was really fun, playing beer pong, going to the bon coin, and just generally being ridiculous with Kevin and Aaron. I think this was the same night that some study abroad girls who lived in Saraya were in town getting ready to leave as well. Great night, and weird in that it marked the departure of Kevin from Kédougou.

The last thing that I got up to in July was the Bike repair mans tourny around senegal that i helped out with. He came to our region to try and fix up the house bikes at it was the rainy season and the bikes were taking a beating in the elements. So i basically helped hi for two days fixing up the bikes, and then we took off to the neighboring region for the same thing. I helped out there as well and had a great time doing it. Something about fixing bikes i like and its very enjoyable. After we get done eith that i was lucky enough to snag a free ride up to Dakar for our Close of Service conference, which happened in the beginning of August.

August - At the beginning of August, there was a number of things going on that required running up to Dakar and all around. Like I mentioned before, i got a free ride up to Dakar for the COS conference. Etienne was in Kolda checking out the security situation at a volunteers site. There had been some robberies by bandits in the area and a potentially sever risk to the volunteers safety. Shames has since then moved out of his site and lives in a village 100 odd km away. Etienne was only there for a day and then headed back with myself and a few other volunteers. There was also a training for people who were extending their service. So i went to both of those as i was getting ready to end my first two years of service but was also extending! Both of the meetings were nice, it was great to see a lot of the folks who came into Senegal in the same group as me before they finished up and went home. the 3rd year meeting was all about getting the different regions working together and just general synergy promotion. All helpful stuff.

Also in August, we started getting ready for the start of our annual Grafting Trainings throughout the region. For this we had to go around and find suitable demonstration sites for the trainings that we will be putting on. Between, Kate Carroll, Ian Hartman, and several other volunteers, we organized a great tourny with our trainer Demba. We ended up having the grafting sessions in Syllacounda, Khosontto, Salemata, Mbanding, Dindefelo, Bembou, and Tjibedji if memory serves me correctly. They all went smoothly and all the participants learned alot. By the end of the training the participant was able to demonstrate their newly acquired skill in actual grafting of a young mango. Tied into this training was my counterparts participation with the training. He also knows the different techniques for grafting and also works in with other agroforestry technologies. He was able to talk about his work with Trees for The Future that has participants all over the region, so all in all it was a nice Ag/Fo session for the people there.

September - In September we had a bunch of stuff going on in the region. We had the Summer Camp thats been put on the past two years by Peace Corps and the local youth organization, my trip to Burkina Fasso to check out the ECHO networking forum with some other volunteers, and the set up of the new volunteers sites. The new volunteers also came on their demystification visit. The site set up was probably the hardest of the things i was helping out with. It just required getting materials out to sites so the shower areas could be built and things like dealing with the families or masons that were in charge of getting all the work done for the volunteers on time. In the end we ended up a little short on some of the materials, i mean i didn't have a hut when i was dropped off at site so i see where we ended up as a pretty big step up!

While the new volunteers were on their demyst visit, i was trying get my passport and the paperwork for my trip to Burkina Faso up to Dakar so they could get my visa. I get a call when i'm out in one of the villages showing a volunteer around saying i need to get back to kgou really fast so that I can email a form to them. I hop on my bike and blast the 15km back into kgou just to find out that they really didnt need the paper work after all and i just waisted all that effort for nothing. Great times. Luckily my counterpart was out in this village with the new volunteer and the other volunteer from the area so the newbie got to see plenty of the village.

Right after this I took off for Dakar and then Burkina Faso. The group that was going was made up of a friend of mine from the kgou region Sully, another volunteer from my group that lives in Kaolack, and a PC tech trainer. It was really fun, they gave us per diem and took care of the travel there. The forum was quite interesting and yielded some intersting ideas for projects as well as being a good networking tool. They talked about different farming technologies, bio gas digesters, seed saving techniques, and many different presentations on the different trees that are helpful in agroforestry projects in the Sahel. We also met the Peace Corps country director for Burkina Faso who happened to be a volunteer in Kédougou back in the late 80's early 90's. It was very interesting and there were also volunteers there from Togo, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

When we got back, the summer camp was getting ready to start and I was helping out with the gardening and tree nursery sections of the camp. It was my counterpart Karumba and myself leading sessions on grafting, gardening, tree nursery creation and maintenance, out planting, and a few other agroforestry technologies. My counterpart is extremely good at working in this type of setting. He has been working with Peace Corps for about 10yrs and knows everything we were training the kids in great detail.

October - After the summer camp I took a little bike trip in Kaolack with two friends, Sarah and Jason, to the coast in one of the prettiest areas of the country. Sarah and myself took a 7place to Kaolack and Jason did the same only starting from his region of Kolda. We started from Kolda and biked down to the coast about 100km away. We spent a couple days there relaxing and then took 7places out as we were all tired from the ride in! I look forward to going back there as it was some of the nicest beaches ive seen in this country. After we got back it was time to make sure that the Case de Santé was following plan. We hit a snag with it as the rainy season had made the road un passable and impossible to get the materials out to the site to build it. Luckily right before i left to come back here the road dried out enough to get the supplies out there and start work.

After this we had the new volunteers instal and come down to Kédougou to go to their sites. I was able to go with the instal team for a couple of the volunteers as i had helped set up the sites. All the instals went well. I was able to go to the ones out in Salemata and the ones out in Fungolimbi area. Getting out to Ethilo, the village next to Salemata was a crazy drive though! Boubou, the driver, definitely proved his worth on the way out there. We were out there for one instillation and then were off to instal another volunteer on the other side of the region. We got to drive up to Fungolimbi to meet the important governmental officials there, Also a fun drive!

Once all this was over i was getting ready to head back to america. One of my good friends who had been my site mate for the last two years left. He was the last volunteer from our group of volunteers to leave. The only ones left were the ones that were extending for 6months or a year. The dynamics of the group that we have in Kédouguou and in the country has changed slightly but still remains great. I took off after this for america and vacation for a month.

......and now im in america! Ill be here till the beginning of next week i think. And then back to Senegal and 1 more year of Peace Corps. Ive taken the GRE's, checked out some grad school programs and weighed up some options that are presenting themselves. Ive also been able to go to some cyclones games and back to Miami to catch up with some old friends. Went to a concert in Hampton Virginia on Halloween. The String Cheese Incident were great and Sam Josh and I were able to drive up to DC the day before and at least witness the thousands of people on the washington mall for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colberts rally to restore sanity/evil. We werent that impressed with it as there was just loads of people there and it was hard to get close to the front where you could hear anything. The public transport we took into the city was crazy though. There were sooo many people doing the exact same thing as us. Parking in suburbia outside of DC and taking the train into town. So it was a huge pain in the ass to get tickets and catch a train. That ate up most of time really. Now im just getting ready to go back to Senegal which should happen soon. Maybe ill actually keep this thing up to date now! Doubt it.

Bike Rides and Relaxing since October

Ok so heres the fun stuff i got up to in that time frame. For whatever reason blogger wont let me post photos now so go to facebook to see them....

also clarification, ok it looks like i wrote that last blog in march, but thats when i started it and then procrastinated for about a month until i actually finished it. continue reading...


-Kevin and I also attempted to start another massive bike trip at the end of oct, we were going to bike from kgou to kaolack, then south through The Gambia for a couple days and then continue on to kolda. it would have been 'Epic' in the words of a certain kolda volunteer, but my knee crapped out the first day. We tried to rest it up in Tamba, but it was still pissed at life so we just took public transport to Kaolack and rested there for a few days. Great time, spent halloween there. Had a blast with some folk we hadnt seen in quite some time and then continued on thinking my knee was all better. made it to our first stop in the gambia no prob and kicked it with some volunteers there for an evening. Very nice people and very hospitable. the next day when we took off again, knee said fuck you and we took a 7place to kolda. oddly enough, biking through the gambia, no hassel. As soon as you put those bikes on any type of public transport, wow, stopped at every stop and asked for the papers for the bikes.... ok let me explain something about bikes here. Think china, shit tons, and no one has papers for their bikes.... We have shnazy american bikes, therefore big fucken target on our backs. But as long as you are on the bike its no big deal as they think youre nuts for biking to Kolda from Kaolack. Anyway get to Kolda, kick it there for a couple days, get to see some cool people again. Catholic bar, brochets bar, terabite harddrive full of great tv and movies. Good time. After a couple days there we take off again with my knee feeling better. Kev and I make it about 2/3rds of the way to tamba and decide to just take public transport back to Kédougou. Fun trip but left me with a bum knee for the next 3 or 4 months. 
      Over the month of november i did a couple trips to different natural wonders here in the region. Over the course of two weeks i went to both the biggest waterfall in the region and a very interesting group of spires that is in the far east of the region. Both very fun trips, I went with Matt and Sheila to the spires and David Jen and one of jen's friends from america to inglee. Thats the waterfall to the west of Kédougou. Both good trips, great camp outs, and a good time with different groups of people. I took plenty of pictures of both trips so if you fancy a look, check out facebook. 

After the Permaculture training i went to in November i went straight to Dakar to get ready to go back to america for xmas. That was a good time, like one big party for a week. Loads of people were going back to america for xmas so i got to see lots of people while hanging out waiting to go back. Great way to get ready to go back to america really. Dakar is alot better than kédougou as its much cooler there, a very nice break from kgou. 
     So December was america and most of you who are reading this prob know all about that trip.

Then back to Senegal at the beginning of january. I stayed in Dakar with Kevin and his brother for a couple days before heading back to Kgou. I got back just in time for the end of another mosquito net distribution in the arrondissement of Saraya. Didnt help with that but got back in time to hear all about it. It was interesting getting back to kédougou and not having all the luxuries that i had in america. My host family here was really happy to see me and it was almost like i was never really gone after a day or so. amazing how quickly that happens. 

The next big thing that happened in country was the WAIST softball tournament in Dakar. This is the highlight of the year for a lot of people in as far as social get togethers go. The whole country is there in regards to volunteers because of the All Volunteer conference, and there are different teams from around west africa that come to play, so there are even more americans in dakar than normal. Its a good time fun for me as i got to meet some interesting folk who had been evacuated from Guinea and were in Benin now. They were so determined to come to WAIST and Ian, one of kédougou's guinean refugee volunteers, organized and refugee team for all the refugee volunteers who were evacuated from both Guinea and Mauritania. Yea Senegal is just this bastion of freedom and democracy as all of it neighbors fall into chaos, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Guinea, and The Gambia. just interesting to think about as a volunteer in a country pretty much surrounded by failed or failing states!
I stayed at the Dakar regional house this year instead of a home stay as no one was really staying there anyway and the people that were there were really cool. Thats how i ended up meeting the ex-Guinean, Benin volunteers. frank form kédougou stayed there as well and he's always a fun time to be around. The ride to our first game was great, frank and a couple friends from his stage were all in the car with me on the way. Richard had kinda woken up drunk and continued to drink and was so chatty with the cabbie, it was a great time. We stop at the bank on the way there and frank ends up finding some guinean pulaars selling phone credit on the street and immediately befriends them. He ends up in the guys hat trying to sell credit to cars in the parking lot of the bank. Classic.
The games were ok, like we did last year, we played to have a good time and be ridiculous. Our theme this year was Cavemen. So everyone was dressed up like that on the softball field. It was a good time and when we lost at the end, everyone was in such a good mood from all the drinking and screwing around i don't think anyone really remembered the score! We have 2 more games and its much the same for those two as well. i cant make it to the last 2 as im feeling really sick. I am able to make it to the big party that the Dakar region puts on which was a great time.
After that big party, its the playoffs and final for the tournament for those that were actually trying to play. Just kinda take it easy and go shopping with Sheila in the market in dakar and meet up with meg and colleen, a friend of megs who is a volunteer in Mali, for ice creme at the best ice cream place in Dakar, Nice Cream. Doesn't sound ubber cool, but when its that hot and you can never have ice cream, its really one of the highlights of the trips i take to Dakar! For dinner that night we go to the point of allmedies, which is the furthest point west in africa. They have great fresh seafood and a beautiful view of the ocean at sunset. We got a huge plate of clam/molusque type things that are really good. I get them every time i go there.
WAIST always leaves me a much more refreshed/recharged volunteer. Sheila and I head back to Kédougou the day after everything is done and have a nice ride back via Tamba. Sheila tells me about her adventure going to the spires and the subsequent bee attack on top of the spires. Its a good trip because we catch up a lot on stuff from when i was in america.
When i get back its the pepinere training for the villagers of Sintiou Roudji and Syllacounda, and then sheila's birthday. I ride out to tjibedji to bring sheila some food for a nice-ish bday dinner and hang out with her for the day. Her host sister and her talk me into staying for dinner and leaving the next morning early. It was a good dinner with plenty of meat and onions for everyone. Sheila's host mom was in charge of cooking or something so it turned out ok, not as good as if Dalanda(her host sister) had cooked it.
So the next morning, as i said i would, i took off at 530ish to get back to kédougou for my pepinere training. This ride was great as i got to take off in the dark and ride into the sunrise. Very pretty watching the change occur. I got to use the bike light that i bought in america to great effect as well which was very satisfying. My headlamp definitely helped out as well though. The morning time is very interesting time to be biking around as all the creatures are getting up and when you hit villages, all the people are still just stirring. Very nice ride with glowing eyes in the trees lighting up from my bike light. That was probe the best part of the trip. When i got back to Kédougou i told my host family that and they were a little taken aback that i had ridden in that early. It was really fun though and i got to see sheila on her birthday as well as participate in my pepinere trainings.
The pepinere trainings went well and when they were all done and taken care of, i took a little bike trip to visit my friend Meg in Kolda on her Birthday. I took the niokolo transport form kédougou to tamba in the morning and biked down to velingara to stay with another volunteer the day before and then on to megs site. It was a great ride minus the 50odd km of construction side roads i had to ride on before i got to a decent road! Lucky for me once i made it to the nice road, my tire swelled up and started to tear at the seams. I had to patch and re patch it several times before it held air. Evne in the end i ended up limping into Velingara having to stop every couple kilometers to pump up my tire. When i got there i immediately went to the market and bought a new tube! Make it out to Amber's site and crash the night there. Very nice family, Kevin and I stayed here when we biked to Kolda the last time. I take off the next morning and make good time getting to Madina Abdul. I stop in another volunteers site on the way in cause i like visiting people and seeing how they live in comparison.
I about rode past the turn off to Madina Abdul with meg sitting there waiting for me. I guess i kinda zone into the biking sometimes. Madina Abdul is a interesting village. It reminds me of Tougé in that it was very small. Meg's host family is very nice and hospitable as most senegalese people are. I mean they did immediately make fun of me for being a Diallo. They are Balde's which is kinda the joking cousin of the Diallo's. So basically ill call someone i meet with the last name Balde or Bah a thief and a liar as soon as i find out that they are a Balde or Bah. It works in reverse as well. If they find out im a Diallo they'll do the same. Yay african culture!
The next day we go up to the road to try and hitch a ride with a passing minicar type vehicle. Im assured that this never takes very long, but sure enough an hour and a half later were still sitting there. We make the call to bike the 40k into kola and try and flag down anyone that passes us. Oh yea no one passes us going the right direction either. Im happy to do the ride as it complete's my ride, tamba to kolda! Kolda is fun, we are able to kick it with a bunch of folk who are in town. Catholic bar, movies and relaxing are all we do. Kolda is a fun place.
In the end we spend 3 days or so there, and then head out with the Peace Corps car that is taking materials for a well project that meg has working in her village. We also take a bunch of material to another girl from my stage's site. So in the end i get to see 3 more people's site. Always a plus. After dropping meg and her well material off in her village i take off with Pape Djakaby, the Peace Corps all purpose man for the regions of Kolda Tamba and Kédougou, for Velingara and then on to Tamba with public transport. I take a 7place back to Kédougou the next day after staying in Tamba the night.
The next time i was on the road again was going up to Thies for a permaculture training before heading to Kolda for the Ag/Fo Summit. We got to hang out in the evenings in Thies at this great little bar right next to the training center. its called the catholic compound. Well thats what we call it cause its catholic woloof/sarere's that own the place. It was great hanging out with some folk i hadnt see in a while on the roof of this place drinking Gazelle's We also got to watch some of the NCAA tournament there as well because they had a projector.
After the training i took the Peace Corps car that was going back to Dakar to meet up with Meg and take the direct car down to Kolda for the ag/fo summit. The ride was very interesting as it left at like 2 in the morning so as to get to the Gambian border at first light. We definitely got there by first light. We were early, and ill always remember sleeping next to meg on the road by our 7place at the head of a long line of semi's and cars waiting to cross the Gambian border at first light. We were one of the first cars to cross the border and made it to the subsequent ferry crossing as one of the first cars there as well. I remembered the ferry crossing from when kevin and I had crossed there on our bike trip through the gambia. It was nice being able to hop back in a car and get to kolda at a decent time after crossing and not bike for two more days.
Kolda was fun for the ag/fo summit. Lots of cool people there and a great time hanging out after the sessions. We were frequently at the catholic bar in town as well as the riverside bar. My favorite was the riverside bar, it wasn't so much next to a river as a seasonal river that wasn't there but for lots of grass growing. very pretty none the less. The Kolda volunteers know how to put on a good show and i think everyone had a good time in-between and after sessions. I got a shirt called a leppe while there. Its white and basically has the sides cut off it and brings you luck. Its great for here as it has great ventilation!
While there i had a chance to chat with some of the Kolda volunteers about the possibility of a bike ride to Kédougou from Kolda for the 4th of July. We would start off from Kolda and shoot across the south side of the park to Salemata and then on to kédougou. It sounds like a great idea and should be fun if folk keep up their enthusiasm!
After the summit, we all took off back for site and a bunch of us from Tamba and Kgou rented out a 7place to take us. We ended up stopping in a big market town to buy peanut butter for people's family as it was really cheap and worth it. It sounds weird, but they use it in most of the cooking here and would set a family up quite nicely if they had a huge tube of it.
After the ag/fo summit, its kind of a busy time for ag/fo volunteer's as were putting together our tree nurseries or at least trying to organize them. for most of April its more of work related travel with a little waterfall trip sunk in at the end of the month. I do get out to Kevin's village on the 3rd for some seed collection. i had originally planned on going out and coming back in but since no one helped me with the collecting of the seeds it took way longer than i had originally though and had to go on to kevins for the night. It was something else biking with 2 huge saddle bags and 1 big duffle bag stuffed full of sisal plants. I get back to Kédougou the next day which happened to be the 4th of April, the Senegalese independence day. Big parade and carrying on all throughout the day.
We end up playing a basketball game versus the kédougou basketball club around the 4th as well which was really fun. They whooped the shit out of us in the first half and then they didn't score again in the second. We somehow managed to win the game! It was really fun.
The next fun little trip that i go on is with Aaron up to his site to check out a well that is being built for much cheaper then we were quoted by the GADEC guys. Aaron and i caught the Mini car up to saraya for our bikes and then biked out to Aaron's village faraba. We crashed there for the night after riding out in the dark. It was a fun ride, i again got to use my bike light to good effect. We take off for the site thats about 15-20odd km out of Aaron's village. We only got slightly turned around en route but it was a nice ride. The Basari guys were actually working rather diligently and seemed very knowledgeable about the well building process.
It wasn't till the ride out that i had bike problems. We were maybe 15km outside of Saraya when the quick release pin on the back wheel of my bike snapped at the threads. Bizarre but the 2nd time it has happened while here. So Aaron and I end up staying in this village for the next couple hours hopping to flag down a car and catch a ride back into Saraya. Of course that doesn't happen. 2 cars go by, the first of which i just didn't get to the road in time to flag down, and the second of which just ignored me and went 100m up the rd, and picked up some africans really quickly and took off again. French hunters suck in my opinion now.
So in the end i pay a guy in the town to carry me back into Saraya on the back of his Moto with my bike strapped on to his port-a-baggage. Very interesting ride back into town. Very hot and not very smooth. Because the bike is busted Aaron and i go to the police station to try and get help flagging down a car that would be able to take me back to kédougou. I end up hanging out there for a couple hours with the guards. Nice guys who thought that it was really funny that i had a Senegalese name and spoke pulaar. They were cool and ended up getting a big camion truck, like the one i took that flipped over in Guinea, to take me back to kédougou. Luckily for me the road here was a billion times nicer as they had just finished work on it and its for a new trans west african highway or something.
A couple weeks into April the new volunteers came for their demist visit. We got ready for them with a nice dinner of Nacho's and Pizza. I was kinda in charge of the Pizza and Hayes was in charge of the Nacho's. Both turned out really good. We made a bunch of Pizza's, barbecue chx pizza, Buffalo pizza, and the usual meat lovers and plain cheese with veggies. All really good thanks to Zach's blue cheese, barbecue sauce, and hot sauce. Hayes is becoming an expert at making home made nacho's. Making the chips with corn flour and deep frying them. So delicious! Throw on top of that really delicious Guacamole salsa beans and cheese. Youre in for a delicious meal! That and pizza knocked me out that night.
Its always cool to see a new group of volunteers roll into the regional house. I can remember when we did it. Quite a bit different now with the internet and power but its still an interesting experience as the regional house is set up more like a large senegalese compound with huts and large communal shade structures. Not unlike the training center in Thies, but still a little intimidating. We are getting about 6 or 7 new volunteers in the region. A mix of Malinke and Pulaar language groups and Environmental Education and Health sectors of volunteers. It was a good time enjoying the food and newbies.
After the new volunteers head back up to Thies for the rest of their training, i head out to this big waterfall that is 50odd km out to the west of Kédougou. I was planning on making a little trip out there a week after with some friends, but wanted to make sure that there was actually water flowing. I had heard from different people that it runs dry but no one had seen it dry themselves. So i hopped on my bike and took off for Inglee. Miserable ride, head wind the for pretty much all of the way there. Right when the head wind ended, the sun came out in force. Don't get me wrong the sun was there before, i just had a head wind cooling me off so i didn't notice! Crazy how that works sometimes. Anyway make it out to the falls around 11ish. Dry as a bone. Most of the pools that were below it were dry, and really no water was falling. I hike up to the pool directly underneath the main falls and eat a bean sandwich i brought with me. Fill up on water as i drank all of it on the way out and get ready to head out.
I took the north route to the falls via thokoye and decided to come back via the southern route. It was a interesting ride and i got to see the villages to the west of dindefello. It was neat but very very hot. I stopped in every village i came to and refilled on water. It is very pretty out there, very much like dindefello in that these villages are tucked up next to a plateau that leads up to Guinea. So you have great views of these sheer rock faces that basically lead up to Guinea. And again because of how close we were to dindefello, everywhere i stopped for water of breaks and talked to people, they all knew my host dad and greeted him and thought it was hilarious that i was so crazy as to do what i was doing in the heat of the day.
I kinda limp into Dindefello and buy a bunch of water that immediately sweats out. While im sitting catching my breath my deaf host uncle who i haven't seen in a week or so comes up to me to greet me. Again tells me im crazy for biking so much. Well uses hand gestures to tell me that. I buy a couple mango's and go greet his family and then head back to kédougou. I make it back to Kédougou around 3:30ish. So i still have the rest of the day to relax and drink cold water! All in all i ended up biking around 100km just for a dryad up waterfall! But im glad i did that rather than drag meg out there for a big let down.
My trip out to Segou's waterfall with meg and sheila followed this almost immediately. Since Inglee was out of the question, Segou made a nice second best. We bike out there early morning the day after meg got here. We made it out there in decent time and from sego followed another trail another 30min to the trail head that would take us to the waterfall. The hike to the falls was really nice as it followed the stream bed that the falls fed. it reminded me of the demise that Kevin and I went on with Steve Wood. There was even a nice swimming hole along the way which you were able to jump into from a raised stream bank. All very fun.
The falls themselves were a little bit of a let down. Im not a good judge as i now compare everything to the falls i saw in Guinea and to Inglee. Nothing can live up to that really. It was nice though, just no real swimming hole. We spend the afternoon there and make camp next to the falls.
We didn't really notice when we got there but i put a bag of trash down on the ground from our lunch. After an hour or so, it was crawling with ants. Again theyre ants, and they were going after trash that was a ways away from our camp site. We cook dinner, pesto pasta with meat and bread. Again we clean up our dinner quite well but there is still some onion peel and bread crumbs sitting around. just kinda sitting around the camp fire hanging out it starts to get dark. Meg goes to get something from her bag thats over by where the zip lock bag of trash is, and ants are just everywhere. Our sleeping area is a ways away from where the ants were so we don't think too much of it, but Meg gets bitten a little bit from this.
Again we think they will content themselves with going after our trash and as our sleeping area is a ways away from the campfire we'll be fine. Well we got bed and Sheila wakes us up because shes moving her sleeping area as the ants had found her. There were ants everywhere! Completely swarmed everything, our bags, the pot we cooked in, the Deet i brought, and the food bag we had. So this is about midnight when we realize were dealing with a problem that we need to deal with. We think about just moving further down the creek bed, but they found us when we were a ways away from the food, so we decide to dent all our stuff and hike out to the trail head. The de-anting sucked. They were everywhere!
The walk back to the trail head was interesting as well. We could see the small trail we followed in most of the time, but lost it every once and a while. That wasn't the bad part about it though. This area that the waterfall is in is home to chimps. Not monkeys or baboons, chimpanzees. We were walking through their territory at midnight with our lights and i don't think they really liked it. The creek bed sloped up on either side to steep hills and the chimps were up top looking down at us barking. We couldn't see them and didn't want to. we passed through two areas that had chimps before we were back to our bikes and the trail head.
Back at the trail head we thought our adventure was over and we would get a good nights rest all things considered. Well of course a flash thunderstorm comes up on us. This is the dry season so this is a little weird, ant it being the hot dry season, we had no tent. At first you think well its only gunna sprinkle a little bit, no worries. Then it keeps coming and getting a little harder and harder. We rig up a shitty little tent with the sheet that meg brought with her and sat under that trying unsuccessfully to stay dry. It made for the ride back being much more pleasant as it wasn't so hot and the sand on some of the road firmed up. Oh and on the way back my back wheel breaks 3 spokes! lots of things to talk about from this trip! All in all it was a fun trip and definitely a story! Meg took off the next morning with the Nokolo transport and back to Kolda.
After this little adventure and seeing pictures of myself, i felt it was time to loose the locks. A. i looked a little like girl, B. its way to hot to have that much hair on your head! So its back down to the really short for the time being.
Really the only biking for fun/ relaxing vie been doing these days is riding out to dindefello to drop off tree sac's or seeds and then spending the day out there with Hassana. That is great and i really enjoy it. We just sit around and talk about the things we want to accomplish with the pilot farm and what we miss in america or just shoot the shit. A bunch of my host family lives out there so i get to see a bunch of really nice folk that i don't get to see very often as well. As it turns out my deaf uncle is moving back to Dindefello as he is not happy in Kédougou. I mean he is from dindefello so he is really just going home.
I was out in kafori visiting Kevin 3 days ago now as he had asked me to bring him out some money and metal wire. It was a nice trip out there. Again got cooked on the way out there. the ride out to dindefello the day before was the complete opposite to this one. It was overcast and even sprinkled a little bit on the away to dindefello, this day it was not much wind, humid, and stinking hot! I was hurting when i rolled into Kafori. We just kinda kicked it for the day, hung out with some of the teachers at the school after lunch. Really cool guys, most of them are from the casamance and love it there. They really like kevin and i as we hang out with them and did a school garden for them. While we were talking to them, i told them i was thinking about visiting there and they all jumped to give me contacts of their families there for me to stay with. Senegal sometimes is really really hospitable. I think as you get further south it gets more and more like that.
Once i got back to Kédougou thomas had downloaded the new terry gillingham move, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Heath ledgers last movie. He died half way through the filming so they had to use johnny depp, jude law, and Colin farrell to stand in for the rest of the movie. Without a doubt one of the weirdest movies ive ever seen. interesting with the 4 actors playing heath ledgers part but really really weird.

Work I've Been Up to Since October

So its been about 6 months since I last wrote. I decided to break it up into two entries, bike rides/relaxing and the work that I've been doing. here is the work that ive been doing.......

Oct- Did a couple more grafting trainings in the kédougou region with our grafting guy Demba Samoura, in Fungolimbi and Faraba. Great times, Demba is a rock

star when it comes to

grafting and getting folk interested in mango's and orchard work. Even though he doesnt speak french, hes a badass who speaks all the local languages which is more important id

say. Made some good contacts up in Fungolimbi as well as Faraba.

-

We received a new batch of volunteers in Kédougou near the end of the month. 5 new volunteers came down as well as 2 volunteers who had been evacuated from Mauritania. All really cool people and prob destined for bigger and better things than I.

The next event that i was involved in

was a training in permaculture that was held at the end of november in Thies. It was interesting, held by a former PCV from Tanzania or Mozambique. Basically promoting enriched permanent garden beds that utilize swales and berms to control the water. very interesting and be now have a demi permaculture garden here at the regional house that uses the sh

ower water to feed a intensive moringa bed. should be quite successful, and so far is doing quite well! The training itself was a good time, got to see a bunch of my friends that i hadnt really seen in quite some time. I was sick in the car on the way up from kaolack and was kinda feeling that the whole time i was there but the training was very interesting.

So once back in the swing of things, it was kinda just how it was before i left. Checking up on the farmers we had been working with and making sure they were ready for the coming tree nursery season.

Touching base with Sintiou Roudji villagers to check up on our farmers from last year and to organize the pepinere trainings that we were going to put on this tree nursery season. Set the dates for that for after WAIST(Wes

t African International Softball Tournament). We organized two trainings for the end of feb, one for the pulaars of Sintiou Roudji and Ibel and the other for the malinke folk from Syllacounda and around Kédougou.

So before WAIST, Thomas, who has been trying very hard to set up a waist sort in kedougou since hearing about the trash compost system that they have in Joal, decided to hold a waist sort. We did this

to test the amount of waist that households create as well as the percentage of the different categories of waist created. It was fun, i helped because i had attended the waist sort that was held in Thies after WAIST last year, and knew how to recognize the different categories. So Thomas and I got to play with trash for a morning with the guys that have started the trash collection service here in Kédougou. The results were much the same as they were in Thies and Joal. There is lots of organic waist that is being thrown away and that you probe could turn it into good compost.

After the waist sort Kevin and I made our way up to dakar for the All Volunteer C

onference that is held a few days before WAIST. It is an opportunity to for volunteers to showcase the projects that they are working on, as well as a forum to share sector specific information to interested parties from different sectors. For example you could sign up to go see a talk on health post creation, summer camp management, tree extension work, or on how to work with farmer federations. The conference was two days long and the second day was for demonstrations of different technologies that volunteers were implementing at their sites. These ranged from solar driers and bio gas generators, to giant cement water filters and hand pumps for wells. All very interesting stuff. Kevin was sick for most of this and WAIST so i hung out with him during most of the All Vol conference.

After WAIST, i get ready for the next pepinere training that Karumba and I are going to put on for the villagers of Sintiou Roudji and Syllacounda. Karumba and myself put these on at the end of February and i even did a interview with Karumba for the peace Corps radio program, the one that we have every monday, explaining, what Karumba's work is, What the organization that karumba works for, Trees for the Future, aims to accomplish, when the trainings were, and the hard parts of working in promoting tree work in the region of Kédougou.

The trainings were held in the format of a viewing of Karumba's demonstration orchard and all of the agroforestry technologies that were on display there. these range from contour planting with Leucaena and vert de vert to counter erosion, to live fencing with Sisal acacia nilotica and ziziphus mauritania to alley cropping with leucaena. The thought process that Karumba and I had in regard to the point of the trainings was that, with the wonderful demonstration site that Karumba has, people would more clearly understand these technologies by viewing what we explain. We felt that the work we did last year was hindered by relying on verbally conducting our main messages. By going individually to different farmers huts and explaining verbally the benefits, a lot was lost in translation. This type of development

work benefits greatly from a local who has already implemented the said technologies successfully and can show them off as a success. Just talking about it leaves a lot to the imagination for people who might not be able to envision more integrated sustainable technologies.

After viewing the orchard, we then set about the demonstration side of the training in getting the farmers to create a nursery with the tree sac's and materials we provided. We showed them the correct mixture of manure sand and soil as well as the importance of neem leaves and ash underneath the tree nursery to combat termites and any other pests that try to hurt the tree nursery. They did this very readily, all the while one of Karumba's friends is sitting near by cooking up tea for everyone to drink while working. No training is complete with out tea and cola nuts to drink and give out. After the tree sac's are full and in nursery, we show how to go about doing a semi direct nursery. This is for jatropha and since we promoted that last year as well, people are very interested in it. This is another type of live fence, just a non thorny one. In the end this method of nursery allows you to outplant a full plant that will have a much better chance of survival then if you direct seeded the fence line.

After we are done with all the learning and the cola nuts have been passed out by the oldest most respected person there, we head back to my house for lunch. Im very lucky in that

my house is very close to my counterparts field and that we can so these types of trainings very easily. My host family cooked up all the food i bought them for the trainings and made some great cheeb a yap which is wollof for meat and rice. The trainings were a big success as everyone puts in their orders for tree sac's and appears very energetic towards this years program. In the end we discussed forming communal pepineres for the 3 sites to simplify the watering and management process. We also talked about the possibility of getting funding from Trees For the Future for tools and materials.

We were actually very lucky in that Ethan, the former Kédougou Peace Corps Volunteer who is currently the coordinator for the West African Trees For the Future program, was very supportive and got us the funding for the trainings, communal pepineres, and materials. We were able to get each site a wheelbarrow, a couple shovels, crentin fencing, and a few water cans, plus close 30 thousand tree sac's for the coming season. It is great to have a viable source of funding that is fairly fast and reliable. Because of this the program for this year will be much larger in scale, with close to 40 thousand sacs out and some very motivated individuals involved.

After the trainings i was lucky enough to go to a training in Thies put on by a former Tanzanian Peace Corps Volunteer on permaculture. It was a very interesting training. It focusing on gardening and making permanent beds that you would never walk on that held very nutrient rich soil. It also incorporated berms and swales in and around the beds to control the flow of water. It encouraged planting of perennials into the berms to reinforce the permanent nature of the project. Very interesting and we put in something loosely based off of this in the regional house with a intensive moringa bed.

After the permaculture workshop and my trip to kolda in February, the region of Kédougou held its kinda annual Regional Retreat in the beginning of March. The Regional Retreat is a forum for everyone in the region to get together and discuss how to better work ensemble and to discuss projects we have ongoing. It also helps to plan out the coming year with projects that volunteers are going to need assistance with in terms of manpower. A good example of this is the mosquito net distribution as lots of volunteers had to help out with it. We also talked about the different technologies and secondary projects we have going on. Basically its anything and everything that you have done, are doing, or want to do. it lasted the weekend and was supposed to be kinda a team bonding event as well. It was held in the far west of the region in Salemata.

Almost immediately after the regional retreat on the second week of March, the hospital in Kédougou was holding another Eye Clinic like the one they held last year. It was for cataract surgery and eye glasses. It was the same team of Dr's who came last year plus a few others. Nice folk and doing good work. I was only there for a day of it or so as i left to go to another training in Thies for the pilot farmer program Peace Corps was starting with funding from USAID.

The pilot farm program is basically my boss's brain child. His idea was to have these farms strategically placed around the country with very motivated farmers demonstrating most of the main Ag and Ag/Fo technologies. The idea is to have these farmers well trained in why they are

doing this so that they can then in turn become a facilitator for that area in these technologies. They would host trainings throughout the year on the various techniques and technologies. Hassana's field in Dindefello was chosen for the project and makes for a great demo site as it fallow at the moment and is prime to be shaped how ever we want.

The program helps with funding for a viable water source(well), fencing, materials, transport, everything to get the farmers set up with the things they need to start. Its a great idea and with Hassana i see lots of possibilities for great work.

In trying to get a well for Hassana's field, another volunteer involved in the pilot farmer program, Aaron, and I talked to a local NGO that specializes in well projects for assistance. Since its the hot dry season i.e. construction season, we wanted to get a leg up on time. They were slightly helpful and have been so in the past, but after talking to the rep here in Kédougou, im very much displeased. We asked for a sample budget so that we could see if it would fit in out budget. We were handed the most outrageous estimate for a well that i think is around. It was for another charity organization that was putting a well into a campement in Dindefello. It was something like 12,000$. i know of wells that have been dug for 140$ that are fine just fine. Upon asking the gentleman about the price he basically told us that thats the price they give to big charity organizations/NGO's that they know they can take advantage of. I was floored. Who takes advantage of people who are trying to help others. its crazy. And the fact he said it so mater of faculty smacked me in the face as if it was normal. That left me very disillusioned with some of these other organizations that work in and around the area. Needless to say, neither of us are using them for our wells.

After this training i went to dakar to meet up with meg and take the direct car to Kolda for the ag/fo summit. The Summit was great as the folk running it did a good job. We had sessions about pruning fruit trees, bee keeping, tree protection, and nursery prep. We were able to go to Kolda's Eaux et Fôrets pepinere to see their nursery and have the tree protection and nursery prep demo there. The pruning demo was held at a volunteer's compound in the city where her host father had a few young fruit trees. The guy who led the session was a mauritania refugee who was now in kaolack. Mike really knew his stuff and evidently is extending for a third year.

The Bee demo was in David Shames's site which was Hans's old site. We got to see the hive and how it was built as well as a discussion on the different merits of different types of hives. We also got to walk out to an actual hive to see it in action. My bright red bandana and sheila's recent attack kinda limited us from going too close so we just hung out a little bit away watching everyone else.

When we got back from Kolda at the end of March, my counterpart, having received significant interest in hosting another training, suggested putting another one on. This was from the same village that some folk had come from at another training. We throw together another training for the end of March with the same format as before and it goes off without a hitch. We got the sac requests that they wanted and closed training programs down and got ready for nursery set up.

I got out to Kevin's village for a seed collection after this last training. I was collecting baby Agave sisilana plants from a field that had 2-3 plants that were flowering. Sisal is a great live fence as you can just plant it and basically leave it alone and it will survive. Sisal reproduces by producing thousands of baby sisal plants where it flowers. This happens every 8-9 years and the plant dies afterwards. Its a really cool plant and if planted well in a fence line, nothing will ever mess with your field.

The next project that i worked on was helping another volunteer with a well project he started while he was in his village and before he extended to Dakar for a third year. I thought this was going to be a really easy give some people money and get transport kinda deal. so wrong. It turned out that the well digger guy actually didn't have everything he said he did and we kinda had to scramble to get some new well diggers and materials. It was a huge pain, but useful in that i now know a bunch of drivers and the folk that own and work at the big hardware stores.

In the end i bought all the materials for the three wells that Andy had given me money for and organized transport, only for the digger and GADEC to say the diggers weren't here yet and that theyd be there the next day. That went on for a week or so. Finally when the big mould and digger show up, instead of three teams for the three wells, it was one guy only. So the digger had changed the plan, instead go three teams working simultaneously, it was one guy who would start when the mould got there and then move on to the next well. The mould was still in tamba so we still had to wait another couple days. This was all very frustrating.

The mould did eventually get there and i had to renegotiate for the transport as a big camion wont just take a small amount of materials, it needs to be full up. So i had to get in touch with a big mini car that was willing to be rented out for the day. Luckily the guy who i bought the materials from was cool with the situation and said we could keep the materials for the other wells at the store till we were ready for them. Then it was just running them up to Saraya and faraba to get the well digger started.

So when we put our budget together for the pepinere trainings for Trees for The Future, i told Ethan that Karumba and the program would benefit immensely if a moto was available. It would allow us to check out most of our nursery sites in a day rather then waist multiple days trying to bike out to these sites. I enjoy biking but Karumba doesn't have the nice bike or young legs i do! Anyway, Ethan said he would try his best but said no promises. Well he came through and my counterpart was able to buy a moto from Guinea! Its a very nice Moto and allows karma to be much more mobile in his work.

At the beginning of April Hassana and i go out to Sheila's village to help her with a compost training there. Sheila did a garden project there and one of the gardens has bad soil

and she decided to do a large compost pile to try and help the nutrient level in the soil. The training went well. Hassana was brought in to effectively translate for sheila and i went cause i guess i know stuff about composting.

So most of the tree sac's that Karumba and I had distributed were ones that Peace Corps had purchased for us. The ones that we received funding for from Trees For the Future arrived at the end of April with Pape Djakaby. Hes the liaison for peace corps here in the region as well as in tamba and kolda. We immediately get those out to Ibel which is 30km away, Syllacounda which is about 11km away, and Sintiou Roudji which is 5km away. After this we start making inquires about the cretin we told the demo sites we would need and start putting them up/making sure they are actually coming.

When ever there is straight money involved in Africa, it always a shit show. Originally we thought to let the womens group president take care of getting the crentin fencing, but that just proved to be a mistake. Crentin never comes and the village just builds a stick fence, which is a bunch of branches and sticks jammed in the ground where the fence is. Everyone does that here, but we had paid for crentin, which is more expensive. As soon as money becomes involved, its always contentious no matter how small the amount. I mean for crentin we arrant talking about a lot of money. At least they are doing the work that they said they were going to do.

Karumba and I go out to Ibel as well as Sintiou Roudji to check up on the progress there. Very encouraging there as they had filled most of the tree sac's and the crentin was en route. We had a little meeting there with the folk who were participating and was left with the impression that they were stoked to do some tree work. Next year i think we'll do a training there. One of the guys who is about my age even found one of the main seeds that we use for live fencing in the village of Ibel, Bauhinia rufenscis, and was ready to use them. Very very encouraging from a first attempt at work in a village.

So last year i went out to Dindefello to help Hassana with the orchard he was trying to establish. Well the fencing didn't come in time so most of the trees we planted were eaten and then cooked by the sun. Since we are using Hassana for the pilot farmer program, we should have a bunch of funding for making his field really really cool. The aim of the program is to build demo sites in the region with trainers who are going to actively try and promote the different technologies they have in their fields. They need lots of useful technologies implemented in their fields to successfully do this. Its my job to help get Hassana set up with everything he needs for his field as well as assisting in actually brainstorming what would be best to have there.

I went out there a week ago to check up with Hassana, and as i was walking from his house to the field i saw some Jatropha on the ground that had been broken off one of the millions of trees they have there as live fencing. I picked it up and took it out to his field thinking i would try and get him to start cutting jatropha branches for cuttings and plant them along the fence line. When i got to the field what was i greeted with but a huge line a jatropha cuttings planted along the fence line! I t was great and look amazing! I forgot that we had talked about doing that the last time i had been hanging out with Hassana and he had just remembered and taken the initiative to actually do it! That will make you feel good about your work to see motivated people trying really hard to work well.

So thats most of the work that vie been up to for the last 6months or so. It is really limited to the 3 tree nursery sites for Trees For the Future, kinda helping with Andy's well project, and hassana's pilot farm at the moment but there are plans for bigger and better things yet to come!