Ok March and April now...
March
So after WAIST we all return to our respective sites and get back to work, well kinda! I had to get back to the agfo regional plan that we were running all over the region with my counterpart karumba. We were still doing the 2nd technical training of the regional strategy and our piece de resistance was approaching. Zach Swank in Segou had just recently found one of the most complete gardens that i've ever seen in my time here in Senegal, just about a stones throw from where he was living! It is owned by the bakers that live in Segou and has been there for about 15yrs +. It sits at the base of the hills that form the border to Guinea and has a natural spring that flows out of hillside that runs year round. They can stick a hose end into the pool that has formed and run it down to where they garden and have their tree nursery and basically have running water! Its amazing! And more than just an amazing set up, the two guys who own it are so motivated to try new technologies and techniques. They understand progress and embrace change with open arms. The son, as its a father and son team that run the show there, can read french and is the driving force behind this quest for new techniques and knowledge. They do basically what ever we tell them in their garden and because they do it exactly as we tell them, they have the best demonstration garden in the region i would say.
That was some background on the field and that all led us to want to have a open field day there to show off all their good work to interested farmers in the region. A NGO in the area was able to let us use their pick up truck for transport, so we had people from all over the dindefelo area at the open field day. We showed off their composting, spacing of plants, hexagonal planting, and their tree nursery there. It was a great meeting and we were able to have lunch as apart of the regional agfo plan budget. I think all in all we had about 60 folk show up from all the surrounding villages and even some people from Ibel! Karumba was on the ticket as well for a tree nursery demo on how to make a tree nursery, what seeds you use and for what. He is getting better and better at doing these types of presentations to people. Hannah, Will, Lil Jess, Zach, Frank, and myself were all there and concurred that it was a very successful field day.
Also in March, Oliver and Ankiths finally COS'd and Steve and myself came up Dakar to see them off. We had a going away party for them and had a great time. We all went out to get Chinese food. It was a pretty large group of people, and a good time. We ended up singing karaoke after adn it basically turned into me Aaron and Emily Scott left closing the place. We head back to the regional house in Dakar to help oliver and ankith pack up and get ready to head to the airport. Always sad to see friends leave and even weirder as it leaves only the year extensioners left in country from my stage.
After getting back from dakar, my work was split between organizing Karumba, trying to get new sites set up for the new stage of volunteers coming in, and working on the demonstration site in Dindefelo. The site set up in bandafassi wasnt terribly hard as there had been volunteers there before and it was basically letting the family know that a new volunteer was going to be coming soon. Organizing Karumba wasnt too hard either as almost all of the villages we were looking to work in had already had the first two visits and trainings. Things in Dindefelo were a little slow as usual, but that was due more to Hassana having things to do in Dakar and the people left there not being terribly invested in the project.
Also in march Aaron came down for a last visit to the region before he left for Peace Corps China. I was also trying to finish up Kevins Case de Santé in Kafori so I didn't get to see him as much as i would have liked. We did go to the Africa Bar a couple times with Ian and other kgou folk. It reminded me of when Aaron came down before WAIST and took off to Guinea and Mali. Same type of an affair only we didn't have to worry about opening the safe this time to get his passport. Before Aaron went on that trip our safe jammed up and would not open! so we had to get Kanté over with a saw of some sort to cut the lock out. Seeing aaron getting ready to leave was a strange time as well. And then seeing pics of him back in NY before taking off for China with Kevin, Ben, Thomas and a few other RPCVs was also quite weird! As I mentioned above, I was trying to finally finish up Kevin's Case de Sante in Kafori around this time as well. Thankfully it is all done now! I had to run out there and give the key to the PCR and then in turn to the Chef de Village who then gave it to the Dr. All in all a very simple affair but necessary. It was a weight lifted off my shoulders and I was thankful for the removal to say the least!
I was able to do a little reading as well, which made for a nice change. Born to Run was the first book that i picked up while sick for a few days. Its a great read and if youre even remotely interested in sports i think you'll like this book. It is the story of a ultra marathon race in Mexico while also simultaneously discussing the evolution of people into being able to walk and then to being able to run. One of my all time favorite books now. I also finished up the Game of Thrones series and am patiently awaiting the next book in the series (which is out now!!). This series is a very good series and the author does a good job of keeping the many twisting and turning plot lines from getting to confusing. I highly recommend both this series and Born to Run for anyone looking for a couple good reads.
April
In April I had a very mixed month. It started out great with me helping the guys at the garden in Segou with their tree nursery and talking about what they wanted to see in a perma-garden there. Then there was the Kolda regional fair in Kolda ville. Very interesting time, i saw alot of the produce that there is in Kolda and learned alot about the appropriate technologies the volunteers down there are using. Martin was there and was getting ready to move to Dakar for his third year extension. We shot the shit about the best way to make moonshine from a still. Always the conversations I have with Martin are very interesting. While in Kolda one of the volunteers there, I think it was Will, had just downloaded the first HBO Game of Thrones episode and i immediately was addicted. It sticks quite well with the books and i'm excited to see what they will do with it.
Right after the regional fair, I went back to Tambacounda and Kédougou to get the tree sacs that had arrived to kgou and the farmers that are working with us. That was fun trying to organize all the drop offs of the tree sacs and getting people starting their tree nurseries. It turned out that we didn't get the tree sacs that we ordered, THere are two sizes, one for fruit trees and one for live fencing, and we didn't get enough large fruit tree sacs. This was right before the new volunteers came for their volunteer visits. The rest of the month was kinda a blur and saw me in Kolda for the Sus Ag summit and then in Dindefelo as well as Fungolimbi. Ill leave it at that.
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