5 Months left.... part 3 (May and June)

And heres May and June.....

May

The month of May was quite nice, I got to watch Manchester United wrap up the Premiership surrounded by fervent supporters of both Manchester and Chelsea, who all spoke english! I got to meet Meg's mother and sister on their visit to the dark continent which was nice. I love meeting peoples parents, shows where people get their little quirks and peccadilloes. I met up with Meg and her family in Tamba and immediately got in a car for Meg's village. It was interesting to see Meg with her family and to see their interactions with Meg's host family in Madina. Overall they are very nice and i think that they left a very good impression on Meg's village. I left the day before they did for Kolda so that I could catch the Manchester United Champions league semi final vs Schakle. This was the day before cinco de mayo.

I spent Cinco de Mayo in Kolda where they were having a party and then took off for the coast to the north where they also speak english. There was a handful of us that went to stay at the timeshare that Ibu's dad had let him use. The place was really nice and run by brits. The local staff was great and really liked having some white people that weren't afraid of them stay there! I was there for a few days in which the gardener there befriended us and showed us around Serekunda. Took us to a party on the beach where it was basically all guys chillaxing. Really chill but at the same time seemed very sketch. We stayed a little bit then went to the bars. Bar hoping there was a great time and the people that we were with made it all the more fun. I could bullshit with anyone on the street about english football and everyone was really nice.

I met up with Meg and her family in Dakar right after this as they were getting ready to head back to the states. They were staying at the hotel Al Baraka, which is a very nice hotel that Kev introduced me too a year or two ago. We were able to go to Chez Lutcha while they were here. Always a good meal! Also were able to go to the Pointe Des Almadies for clams and oysters. That is my favourite place to eat in senegal! The furthest point west in Africa and beautiful with the sun setting over the ocean. It also is always delicious! They were only in Dakar for a short while and seemed to have a nice time in general for their whole trip. Coming to Africa for the first time is always an experience.

When I got back to Kédougou it was almost time for the new volunteers to instal at their sites! Its amazing how fast time flies here sometimes. Chris came down to officially instal this group and attended the Bassari initiations with his son JD as well. I was able to go with Chris to Dindefelo so as to greet his family there and to look at the master farmer site and the garden in Segou. We saw both of those and then went to the waterfall where we saw a snake swimming in the water which was fun. We talked about the master farmer program and how Hassana was doing and what he could do better in the future. Overall it was a good visit and gave me an outlet for several of the frustrations that I was having with the project.

It was shortly after this that Arfang came down to do his master farmer tour. We mapped out where the different demo plots were going to be in the field and planned for the next visit where we would map out where the grafted mangos and citrus's would go. We decided on three different demo plots, one of beans and peanuts, one of rice and one of corn. The corn i feel was the hardest to set up as each individual plant has its own hole that was dug and had soil amendments applied to. This is called conservation farming, or farming gods way as the people at ECHO called it. We learned about it when Steve, Jared, Arfang and myself were at their networking seminar in Burkina Faso. The corn was set up as follows. 4 plots, 2 with the holes for each individual plant and 2 where they farm as they normally would next to the conservation farming demo. The rice was a demonstration of appropriate spacing within a plot. All the demos have that aspect incorporated into their plots though as well as the thinning of plants. With rice i guess its a bigger deal though. Normally locals just broadcast their rice seed so deliberately planting them at the correct spacing will show how productive rice can be. The beans were set up as follows. There were 4plots of beans interspaced with plots of peanuts that acted as buffers between the bean plots. This demo was all about the affect of natural pesticides vs chemical pesticides on the beans. one plot is the control with nothing on it, the second is with neem leaf pesticide, the third is yellow sticky traps, and the 4th and final is with chemical pesticides.

The Champions League Final. A very fun evening, alas with a bad outcome for me, but all in all fun. Rooney scoring to make it level at the half was a hell of an accomplishment and Man U were just played off the field in the second, Barça were just too good. At least we scored a goal this time though! We watched the game at this nice Bassasri bar that is right next to a big mosque in town and it was a lot of fun. The crowd was def pro Barça but that didn't stop me from drinking a bunch and yelling at the TV! I stayed and watch the end and the presentation of the trophy and then peaced out afterwards. Funnily enough i left the next morning to go meet up with meg, as she was getting ready to leave for home, so i missed out on all the ridicule that ALL my senegalese friends were going to throw at me because they all know that I support Manchester United. So that at least worked out!

June

June was not a work heavy month, as i was hanging out with meg before she took off for the states. So the first half of the month i spent in Dakar and Palmarin and then the second half back in Kédougou. I basically hung out with Meg while she was getting all her paperwork and COS stuff in order. I was able to get certain things in order that required my presence at the office and Dakar. We went around Dakar looking for last minute gifts for meg's family back in the states. I think she ended up buying 13 jars of jam or something for assorted family members! In all fairness the jam is quite good and is all local fruit that you cant get in the states. I think that she ended up getting several cow horn cups and some jewelry as well. All very nice things. Once Meg was done with med clearance and basically was all COSd, we took off for Palmarin for a few days of tooling around on the beach and mangroves.

The drive down was one of the rides that I would like to forget about! instead of a 7-place, we basically were in a station wagon that had 2 seats put in the back. I was siting on the gas tank and when they filled her up, lucky me, the gas leaked out of the joint of the tank. So that with the shitty seat i was sitting in, I wasn't in the best of moods. It was a nice place and the mangroves were the best part of Palmarin in my opinion. We got to kayak around the mangroves with a really nice guy that had worked with Chris Murphy while he was in Palmarin. We had lunch out in the mangroves with fresh oysters and fish. We passed where the oysters had been grown. They were from a project that a local women's group was doing. It basically was thin planks that were attached to the mangroves and running 6 inches above the water. Strings were hanging off the planks and the oysters grow onto the strings. It was pretty interesting and very delicious!

The ride back to Dakar was much better than the ride down. We had a 7-place pick us up basically from the campament. We made decent time back to Dakar and just kicked it in and around dakar for a day or two till meg had to fly out. While we were waiting for megs flight, we got to meet one of the peace corps fellows that was attending Emory. John was a PCV from Niger and was doing research on polio here in Senegal. We had pizza close to the office and then went out for beer at the Pointe des Almadies which was fun. Late afternoon there is just a fun time. We also ended up going there the night before meg left, after minor financial issues with the ATM. After resolving that we had a good time at the pointe. That walk from the pointe to the office has had many interesting events, from being walked into a dirt mound to falling into large unmarked holes next to the new US embassy, i can honestly say ill never forget anything about the pointe. Seeing Meg off at the airport was the hardest thing that ive had to do in this country. Knowing that I wont be able to see her for at a minimum of 6 months sucks. It was even better when the guards at the door wouldn't let me in and we had to say our goodbyes at the front door of the airport. Meg was crying, i was trying to argue with the guards to let me in, all in all it could have gone alot better, even if saying goodbye is always going to hurt. I decided to walk back to the office after that and also decided to took off for kédougou the next morning.

Well I didnt make it out that next day, and I only made it as far as Klck when I did leave as I had to clear up some details for the master farmer demo plot in Dindefelo. i also was trying to get the fuck out of Dakar, as i had been there for a long time by then. The fact that it was my birthday was really neither here nor there. Birthdays are great and all but outside of getting older and your family and friends that know you well, i dont really like being around people. Its fake is the problem. Perfect example and really the kicker that got me out of dakar, someone i know who doesnt like me, its reciprocal believe me, feigned surprise and delight at hearing it was my birthday and immediately wished me a happy birthday. fuck that. Id rather no one wish me a happy birthday than have fake happy birthdays. Hence only the people i really care about know when my birthday is. So i spent my birthday in Klck getting drunk with some of the new volunteers there and had a good time.

Back in Kédougou it was time to get to work on the dindefelo demo site. We started off with the conservation farming demo. I think that that was as far as we got for that as Hassana had a group of american kids coming in for a trip run by Walking Tree and I had to head back in to Kédougou for the 4th of july prep. I had to get the material needed for the 4k on the 4th ready. Running around turning in invitations and making sure speakers, tents, and chairs were all reserved. Its always a little stressful getting all the different ducks all lined up, but is very rewarding when everything starts going smoothly. CJ was the master of ceremony for this year and therefore delegated all the responsibilities for the party to us Kédougou volunteers. I helped with the pigs and the tents and chairs. For the race i had to make the invitations for the governor, police, red cross, mayor and just about anyone who was mildly official in the local government.

While all this was going on, Zach Swank out in Segou was having a work day/opening of his campement there. A good number of volunteers all came out there to help out and have a good time with Zach. I went out as well, but had to bike back in right after i was done planting the sisal plants on the property line on the top of the campement. The only reason that i was required to head back to Kédougou was because the guy that was helping me with the invitations and getting in touch with all the local government folk needed an official stamp on one of the invitations. Kinda annoying but what can you do. Went back, signed and stamped the invitation and then decided to just spend the night in Kédougou. Then it was time to come in and start cooking and getting ready for the 4th!