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.
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