5 months left.... part 4 ( July )

And the last installment for the time being!

July!!
The 4th of July was kinda like a descending of every volunteer in the country to our regional house for a big ass party. I think in the end we ended up with like 90 odd folk there. It was a good time for sure! In the morning we had the race outside the community radio in the center of town. As was the case in the previous 2 years we had done the race, the military and the firefighters were the guys who were kicking ass and taking names! I had Ian and frank be the master of ceremony for the race, announcing the race start and handing out the awards at the end. I was the first volunteer to finish, but no where near the top 5! After the race we had to take down the tent, load up the speakers and chairs, and take everythign back to the regional house for the party.

I was helping organize everything from the tents to the pigs we cooked. The pigs were really good. There is a volunteer here that is from Hawaii and i guess that pig roasts are something that him and his buddies do quite frequently there. Now weve done pig roasts before but this was a new way to do it! Usually we just dig a big hole get a fire going and throw the pig on a metal sheet or some kind of prop and cover it with a sheet and keep it wet and cook it for hours on end. This way that CJ wanted to do was a little different. Same big hole for the pig, then pile it full of logs and then top it off with big rocks and light it on fire. The idea being the rocks get red hot and stay hot for a long time. Once its burned down theres coals and red hot rocks sitting in there. For the pigs, you take some of the smaller rocks that are now red hot and put them inside the stomach and sow up the pig so it starts to cook from the inside. Then you put the pig in banana leaves. wrap it up nice and tight and wrap it in chicken wire so that you can get the pig in and out of the hole. Put the pig in the hole on top of the red hot rocks and then burry it. Once the pit is almost all the way buried, you put a tarp down as the last insulation layer and finish burring. Then you let it cook for a day. By the next day the ground was hot above the pits where the pigs were! I was a little skeptical but it worked beautifully! The pigs we cooked were delicious, the meat literally was falling off the bones. And they were still piping hot when we undid the banana leaves and looked delicious. Lets just say I was happy i was one of the cooks and got to nibble on the meat as we were preparing ( i use that term loosely as we were just pulling the meat off the pigs!). The timing of the pigs getting done and the barbecue pork being done was a little off and i was running the show on the barbecue. Only bad part was the rain that decided to roll in right when we were about done with the barbecue, BUT not done! So it was trying frantically to get the pork done while rain is falling on the grill cover. everything got done, but it was a little ify there for a second if it had in fact kept on raining. Luckily for us, it didn't and our party kept rolling. there was a impromptu dance party in the middle of the rain storm though, that was pretty sweet to see. Patrick dancing away while waving a giant american flag over his head. What a beautiful site! Lucky for me cause i got a little too drunk and passed out pretty much right after that for about 4hrs! Yea so that last sentance pretty much sums up the theme of the party, i think we had something like 40 cases of beer, a case of gin, and a case of the finest Vin Rouge de Table that senegal can produce! A dance party that lasted till the wee hours of the morning and a shit ton of fireworks, even if CJ tried to blow himself up by holding onto a big rocket and getting showered in sparks. All in all I think we did America proud, good food, good friends, and a shit ton of booze! I had a great time!

After the 4th there was a great deal of things going on. We remeasured the plots for Beans and rice as some of the stakes that marked the plots had been knocked over and were a little lopsided. Once we had the plots reremasured, we got started actually plowing and seeding. I left to head out to Saraya then on a bike trip. I was going out to Missirah Dantila via Saraya and then coming back into Kédougou the next day via Dimboli. It was a nice trip, I had the beautiful new road that goes all the way to Saraya and then the ride to Dantila from there is really beautiful as well. I was delayed most of the morning I was going to head out, because it rained all morning. When I did finally take off around 1, I made good time and was in Saraya by 4:00. It had stayed overcast the whole day so i was able to make good time getting there. I stopped in and saw kates new place in Saraya. It was lucky that I stopped by as I was able to meet her host brother that was doing malinke rap! Real funny and kate had her computer with her and turned on garage band for him. It was so funny. After filling up my water and the little rap session i got to watch, i was back on the road by 4:45.

The next leg of the trip was to Nafadji and then heading further south and to the final destination for the day, Missirah Dantila. When I got to Nafadji I was quite hungry and feeling a little tired so decided to stop and get a biscrem and get recharged for the last leg of the day. I think at that point I was at 90km total for the day. That just left the the last 20km to Dantila. They didnt have biscrem, so i had to get these 100cfa (about 25cents) bags of cookies. They were great! Its amazing how just eating a little of food can recharge you for bike riding or running for a long distance! So after that I was feeling good and really enjoyed the last leg to Dantila. It is really pretty along the road. You start to see the mountains in guinea a lot clearer and the forest around that area is very green this time if year and very spectacular. I made it to Missirah Dantila right before dark and found Ian, the new volunteer there, waiting for me at the health post with his counterpart. Ian's from Georgia and went to Emory for his undergrad. Small world. I spent the night there and we both took off the next morning for kédougou via dimboli. The ride was fun, we both ended up getting lost at the beginning and found small children in the middle of the woods on peoples fields to take us back to the main road. It was funny that we both got lost at just about the same time really close to each other. Once we were back onto the main road it was smooth sailing from there. We made it to dimboli by late morning and got to watch the end of Ben and Eric's Neem lotion demonstration. As it was getting hot and because I really wanted to get back before it was scorching hot so took off with out them. Made good time getting in and was enjoying cold water sitting on the porch when they rolled in.

When I came back after the bike trip and made it out to Dindefelo next, Mumanie, Balla, and Djiby Sy (the guys helping me with the field out there) had run out of the seed I had given them and hadn't called me to tell me. I had just biked out there and had planed on continuing out to Franks site of Matacossi via the road to Eric's site Pelel. Since I had already packed my things for that trip and was planning on camping out at the waterfall inglee the next night while inbetween the two sites I decided to camp out there anyway and deal with the seed issue the next day. I figured that the best option was to head in the next day via Thiokoye (thats the road town that is like 3k from Matacossi) and then get the seeds on transport out to Dindefelo.

Inglee was fun. Eric and Frank actually decided to join me for the day, as they are only about 15km away and can easily make it a day trip. We had a good time, we went swimming in the falls and the multiple pools there. While we were all hanging out there we thought it would be a great place to have a party. We decided to organize a trip out there for the day after the house meeting, which is the 13th. It should be a really good time. Frank had bought a sleeping mat and stayed at the falls with me. Eric had to get back as we had had a meeting with the man in charge of eh case de santé in the next village over and decided eric would do a Neem leaf demonstration out there that afternoon. Frank and I made a fire and cooked up a nice dinner of pasta, and then crashed. Earlier before Frank had arrived, I made a little lean-to and covered it in the plastic that i had brought with me. Frank just had the mat that he brought. Of course it rained! We had to rush into the lean-to plastic tent to stay dry. It actually worked quite well surprisingly.

We woke up and ate the fonio we had cooked the night before only with milk and sugar and then took off for Thiokoye. The ride was nice, took a few pics and have the entire route saved on my GPS now as well. En route we stopped at a small village where my host sister lives. Ive known that she lives there but never had stopped to say hi when going to Inglee. She was happy to see us and wanted us to stay for lunch. Have to love senegalese hospitality. After crossing the river to get to Thiokoye, Frank and I went our separate ways. From the junction of the main road back into Kédougou is about 30km. I made it about 10km and my tire went flat. Of course my patch kit is empty and the glue that i had was all dried up! So I have to empty out my bag on the side of the road to get the spare tube that i had brought with me. This was a good reminder as to why you need to check your bike fixing materials BEFORE you take off on a bike trip! Luckily i did have the spare and got the flat fixed pretty quick. I did get some great pics of all my crap spread out on the side of the road. A guy also decided to come by and just stare at me trying to fix my bike. Not really in the mood to talk to this guy as i was busy i very briefly greet him. He stands around a while and then asks how i broke my bike as he knew that white peoples bikes dont break! I just kinda looked at him and said we'll what does it look like im doing right now! It was kinda funny. When i did get back i got those seeds on some transport for dindefelo.

Arfang came and visited the master farmer site again. This time he was helping mark out where the fruit trees were going to go in the field. There were Walking Tree kids there at the same time and they were able to assist in the digging of the holes for the fruit trees. some of the trees will be inside the demo plots for this year but it should be ok. The demo plots were coming along as well at this point. The conservation corn plots were growing quite nicely and just needed weeding and a little maintenance. The bean plots that had been planted with my high tech system of a rope with knots tied into it, looked beautiful! The seeds that i had sent out with transport though, looked awful. Mumine planted those and didn't know what the large scale organization of the demo plots was. So he just planted willy nilly and fucked up the layout and spacing for the rows and alleys. That was really frustrating seeing that sitting literally right next to a absolutely beautiful plot of beans that was done correctly. We just need to roll with the punches, its not like i didn't do everything to get them to understand what we are doing there! And the kicker is that the other two guys there completely understand what we are doing, so that makes it more frustrating! Oh well, the rice demo is coming along, just need more time to have the rice get large enough to weed and thin.

I was actually just out there a week or so ago for weeding and thinning of the plants in the bean and corn plots. They all looked good and will be doing a great deal better after the weeding they received. Hassana was in Dindefelo for that, making sure that everything was going well before he takes off for the States. When he went into Kédougou to take off to Dakar and then on to America, i went with him to finalize the details for the Grafting Trainings that we will be doing in the region this year. I had to meet with Demba Samoura who is the trainer that we have used for the past 3 or 4 years for these types of trainings. We were basically finalizing the dates and locations that we are doing this year. All of these trainings will be taking place over the next two weeks.

I think it was around this time that I decided to get a haircut and was talked into/thought it a good idea to get a mohawk. So Eric helped me cut off most of my hair and i now have a mohawk that people here in Senegal love! I've even gotten free beer out of it. Well that might have more to do with the fact that Blandine is usually drunk when i'm bringing back empties, and i'm the only one who brings back empties! Either way she said it was cause of the hair, so I'm happy with the results! Oh and people call me David Villa now, its great. I've gone from David Beckham to Messi to David Villa now, thats the progression i go through! More importantly, all white people look the same!

Right after this, a few folk were looking to go on a little two day trip up to Sokone and i decided that i would tag along. Great little trip, I got to see a bunch of guys i hadnt seen in a year or so. Solomon, Amadou, Moses, and Ibrihima. Great guys and really nice. We camped out on the beach and just chilled out for the two days. I got to go fishing with those guys and we caught a good amount of fish that we then ended up cooking and eating. This was just a drop of the hat decision to go back to kaolack region but was a great time! We only had slight trouble with the transport. We ended up broken down 30 km outside of kédougou at 6am and were stuck till 8 and then didn't get rolling till 930. After that it was smooth sailing though. coming back we just had a slow 7place but made decent time.

I also helped CJ make the radio then as well. We did a plug for the grafting trainings and then did a new segment called Joueugol ballon Juma, or for the non pulaars out there, football fridays. It was basically CJ and I bullshitting about all things soccer for about 20min in pulaar. It was great! We ragged on El Haji Diouf for a good chunk of it and then gave a little run down of who has signed who this offseason and all the goings on in the world of football. We think we have a decent blueprint for future segments as well. We put that radio show on at 1730 and then around 1930 i went to get some dinner. I sat down at the spaghetti shack that I go to a lot and greeted everyone only to have some of the guys there immediately ask me if i was guy who did the radio that day! They loved it! They were saying how important it was to have stuff like that on the radio. Great little confidence boost that! My pulaar sucks but the way that i learned it was bullshitting with my brothers about soccer so this was basically how i learned my pulaar!! I think the segment will be making a reappearance in the near future!

I think that that actually catches me up to August! Im going to try and write more for the last few months ive got here and take as many pictures as i can. Need to try and savour these last few months left in senegal, as writing this has reminded me of all the little things you forget about as time moves on. So hopefully more entries and pictures will follow.

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!

5 months left.... part 2 (March and April)

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.

5 months left.... part 1 (January and February)

So while there are only 5 months left in my peace corps service, i havent updated in the last 7 or so months. Whoops. Oh well, not sure if i can really give a recap of what all has gone on in that time period but ill give it a try in installments of 2 months!

January
So lets start at January then. We had our regional retreat in mako at the beginning of the month where we talked about regional strategy and all the projects everyone had going on. I was able to present the idea that Ian Kate and myself had come up with regarding the regional agroforestry strategy. The basic idea is for a network of farmers throughout the region that act as relais for information sharing and demonstration fields. I think that it could have a interesting affect on the region in the cataloging of work partners and retention of institutional knowledge. We'll see how it has faired after this first pepinere season.

We also had the Ambasadpr visit the region during january to inspect some of the US government funded projects that are present here in the community. As it happened, Hassana was having a baptism for his baby girl at the same time as the ambassadors visit. With Hassanas father being the director of Peace Corps Senegal and a good friend of Mrs. Bernicats, Chris invited her to attend. It was an interesting affair, TV cameras filmed the whole event with Mrs. Bernicats entourage running her time meticulously, or at least trying to in the face of typical african delays. A few days later when she was about done with her trip, she invited a few of the volunteers to dinner with her at the Bedik, the nice hotel she was staying at. Dinner was nice, Mrs. Bernicat is a very down to earth person and very friendly. She even stopped by the night after that before she left to see the Peace Corps house and to attend one of the pizza nights that David threw at his house behind the CTC.

Megs came to visit toward the end of the month as well. We biked to Segou and Dindefelo, spending a few days out there. I was called back to Kédougou to meet with an Oromine guy (Oromine is one of the big gold mining companies that operates in the area around Sabodala in the north of the region). He has a interesting plan to reforest some of the areas that are going to be disturbed by the mining. It is an interesting plan and my counterpart from Trees for the Future was assisting them in the creation of a large scale tree nursery for their reforestation efforts.

February

In February, I was able to move around the region a little bit more than I usually do. I was able to go out to Salemata and kick it with steve, Ian, and tatiana for a day in Salemata. Ian and Steve were having a bunch of stuff delivered out to their sites via camion, so i decided to hop in and roll out with them. It was just Ian, myself, a guy from Ians village we picked up along the way and the driver al the way to Diarra Pont about 60 odd km away. We dropped off Ians stuff in Diarra Pont and met up with Steve there. From there we all rolled out to Steve's site of Kirkeressi to drop off Steve's stuff. We got into Kirkeressi after dark and we were all ready to go to bed. The next day we ended up drinking a lot, starting off with a bottle of gin in village before coming in to see the lummo (Senegalese market days). While sitting in one of the campament in town, Chez Gilberts, we enjoyed some lovely 'Le Pichet" wine. While there, two french tourists came in and had lunch. They showed up in this little Peugeot thing that looked way out of place in Salemata. They told us that they were going to Ethiolo and we all kinda looked at each other and then told them that they wouldnt be able to make it there in that car. They said they were going to try anyway. I remember driving out there for Tatiana's instal and how crazy the ride was! Sliding all over the place, really steep hills with not much of a road going up it. All that being in a Peace Corps land cruiser! No chance that thing was getting out there! We stayed there till evening time and Tatiana took off to go back to Ethiolo. Ian Steve and I had a very interesting but very delicious dinner at Chez Gilberts. I can now boast of having eaten porcupine! We had it with a nice onion sauce and spaghetti. Ian and I had a fun night time blast back to Diarra Pont after having drank all day and eaten a delicious dinner. It was a lot of fun if not really tiring!

Waking up in Diarra Pont and listening to Fac Alliance on Ians casset player as we made a avacado tree nursery in his back yard was pretty fun! Fac Alliance is a band from Guinea that sings in Pulaar, so all the vilages in Kédougou that speak Pulaar, love it. When we were heading to the edge of the village to head off for teh rest of out day, Ian stopped by to great one of his work partners. We arrive in the compound and say "As-Salamu Alaykum" to no response. The guys son also comes into the compound and tells us that his dad is in the back yard of his hut with his wife. We go back there and he is hunched over cutting something up. Ian and I greet him and his wife, seeing that he is cutting up some kind of goat. Ian and Momadou talk a little and then Momadou gives Ian a bunch of this meat. The description of the meat is as 'mbaywa ladde' which means sheep of the forest. So to us white people, that means bushbuck. We both kinda look at each other and then decide to go back to Ians hut. We cut up the meat and then marinate it in honey and cut up onions that Ian had in his hut. We then finally took off for the rest of our day.

After leaving Ian and I went to check out a site that the volunteers in the area thought might make a good new site for a volunteer. It was not too far from Ians site but it did look quite nice! Picturesque village sitting on the lower slope on the eat side of a beautiful little valley with a seasonal stream in the middle of the little valley.. Evidently there is a guy there that would make a great counterpart for a volunteer as well. Evidently the guy is a rockstar when it comes to learning new techniques and is really motivated to go forward. Only bad part is two fold, there was a problem with the water situation in that most of the wells in town went dry by the end of the dry season. Second part is that the rockstar counterpart has had some horrible luck with just about everything. Children getting sick, family members dying, just problem after problem. We went and checked out the gardening area next to the stream bed and saw the types of vegetables that they were growing. When we went to leave, the chef de village gave us a small bag of onions that the women's group had produced from the garden.

After checking out that site, Ian and I then went to Tatiana's site of Ethiolo. Ian was helping Tatiana and her village with a reforestation project for the community forest that sits on the hills next to the Basari's village. It was a fun morning. We ended up with several hundred tree sacs filled and two large bare root beds created. It was a very nice fenced in garden where we made the tree nurseries. It was the first time i had been to Ethiolo for a extended period of time in almost 2years! Its an interesting town because they are so used to white people. It makes for an interesting atmosphere. And then they are Basari and therefore christian and drink. It makes for a very fun time.

When I got back into Kédougou with Ian, I had to get in touch with my counterpart about the upcoming Trees for the Future/Peace Corps agroforestry informational tourney. Before we came in, Ian and I had planned on going out to check out a artisanal mining camp that isn't too far away from his site, but Ian hurt his hand and we had to go in to have that checked out. The tourney with Karumba was the first of three installments where Karumba came out and instructed. It was the start of the Kédougou regional agroforestry plan. The first was a informational meeting in villages where volunteers were located, where all the different agroforestry technologies are being explained. Overall the first part of the program was quite a success. A great deal of people were in attendance and many said they would come back for the technical installment later in the month

The second leg of the plan was for tree nursery creation. Karumba went around and held demonstrations on how to make a tree nursery and how to properly pretreat the seeds. Overall there were less people at this second meeting as the idea was to wean off the people that weren't really interested in the project. We even held a few seed collecting days in different areas of the region. I have a weird eye these days when it comes to IDing trees while i'm out and about on my bike. It only took 3 years to acquire but now im pretty good at IDing the trees that we use! I had been noticing some of the trees that we use the most in live fencing and other agroforestry technologies around and decided to start mapping them out and make a plan for seed collection. We ended up having two big seed collection days, one out by Franks site for Acacia nilotica and then one out near KC's site for Acacia senegal. Frank and bunch of the guys who were going to be creating pepineres this year came out and helped us collect the seeds in mbanding. It was a good time and we collected lots of seed pods at both the collection days.

Towards the end of the month, we had several things going on inside of Peace Corps Senegal. There was the Agroforestry summit in Thies plus WAIST and I believe also a all volunteer conference. The Ag/Fo summit was wonderfully placed to straddle my one year anniversary with meg and a agfo summit was really the last place i was looking to be for that! Alas I had to present the kédougou regional agroforesry plan to the assembled volunteers and then left for Dakar afterwards! Before leaving I had to sort out the tree sac order that the region of kédougou put together for the coming tree nursery season. There was a few issues with the collaboration with trees for the future and Peace Corps just buying them all the stuff they needed for their projects. While the trees for the future program here in senegal is very intertwined with the Peace Corps program, this still left a bad feeling in several peoples mouths. Everything was resolved though and all our tree sacs were ordered.

In Dakar Meg and I went out to the french cultural center for valentines day and all of our other usual haunts. Between nice cream, the point de almadies, and chez lucha, we ate very well and had a very good time. As WASIT was happening then as well we were able to stay at our home stay with two very nice friends of the PCMO Dr. Ullie. They were a Dutch and German couple that work for the german development agency. Very nice people and very hospitable. Now, what to say about WASIT. For those of you who dont know what WAIST is, it stands for West African Invitational Softball Tournament. Basically its a release valve for all volunteers to go up to dakar and have a good time with all the other volunteers in the country as well as the other neighboring Peace Corps countries. It turns into a big shit show and is an absolute blast! Kegougou always plays with the region to the north of us as we are both sparsely populated with volunteers. We always don a uniform/costume that is ridiculous and this year was no exception! We were Peace 'Cops and Robbers'. It was a blast. Meg and I went trawling through the fukiji for a costume for me and came up trumps! I found a cabbie hat that said fashion police on it and from there took the Cop angle to that of a Lt. Dangle fashion cop type person. It was alot of fun. Meg was Yoda as Kolda was Space Corps, anything to do with star wars and movies like that. Somehow i ended up being the captain for the team, i think because no one else wanted to do it! So i got to 'pick' our roster, which basically consisted of before the game starting, forfeiting and then yelling out random names for random positions on the field. It was a riotously good time. Cape Verde and Mali PCV's made the games we played against them a blast as well.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, of the tree days of WAIST, i think Meg and I only made it out in the evening once! I ended up drinking too much and passing out to recover and rally only to pass out for 4 hours! by that time we just stayed in! The one night that we did go out, we had dinner with our home stay family which was very nice and we learned a little about their family. After dinner we went to the american club where the event for the evening was being held. It was a good time and most of the guys from my stage ended up getting thrown into the pool. That sounds nice and all, but it was fucken cold! OK so not american cold, but senegal cold WITH a sea breeze. So i had to borrow mika's spare pants and shirt that he happened to have with him. Hes kinda a small guy and i was very surprised that I could wear his clothes!

So thats the update for January and February minus my x-mas and new years trip. Im holding the notes from that so i WILL write that up soon. Now onto March and April....

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.