The Village

Im sorry I havent updated my blog in probably a few months, but I have been busy at work. My village has been keeping me busy with a long list of objectives, and in my free time....Oh yeah, I have no free time. So I just want to write about what Ive been working on lately if anyone cares to know what Im doing in Africa, maybe even WHY.

Since Ive came to site my village has received a garden for the school. An NGO (Non-governmental Organization) donated a school garden to my community, if and only if, my community put in the hard labor. Of course that meant me. So a month into my service went by and the garden was complete exept for the guts of the operation. The NGO also donated a $5000 drip irrigation set-up that Ive been waiting four months for. Good news is that it arrived yesturday and Ill be spending the bulk of my week next week constructhing this pain in the ass. My school garden is freaking huge. Its 20M by 50M and the irrigation tubes need to be set every 60cm. So my school garden has been my nuber one project in my village so far. But there are others.....

THe bulk of my work here is a seed extension program where I give farmers a specific number of seeds that outlasts the local variety. The local variety here is bad. The idea is that I give them better seeds so at harvest time, they can save the seeds for next years sowing. My program here is of the following: I give one farmer 2kilos of seeds. 1 kilo = 2.2 LBS. When time comes to harvest that seed, they in turn have to give me back twice that amount. It teaches them to save their seeds and it allows me to give more seeds to farmers next year. This year Im working with 14 farmers and Im givinf them all an average of about 3 KILOS each. So in November, they will all give me 6 KILOS back. ITs not a very sustainable approach to farming, because giving them the choice of saving seeds and eating seeds is prretty give or take. Try telling your neighbor that he isnt allowed to eat for a month because I loaned him a cup of sugar last year.

Recently, I started a BOYS and GIRLS group. This one isnt really too special. I just have one day every month where I take ALL of the kids in my community and teach them new games and have fun. In March we played frisbee and went swimming. This month Jane and I are going to host the first annual Bambougar Malick Ndiaye tug-o-war fest. Im going to dig trenches and fill them with mud and let the kids go wild. After we can go swimming. (I go swimming ever day)

Two weeks ago I had a lotion making project. I know that sounds very ladyish, but its easy to do, and my village thinks Im GOD now. Quick story and recipe. To make lotion to grate 300grams of soap with a cheese grater. Mix in one litre of water until it foams up and thickens. After add one litre of vegetable oil (slowly). You can also add perfume, as I did. The ladies went crazy for this stuff. In the village, people dont have access to everything we Americans have, so teaching them to make lotion rocked because they can easily afford everything listed. And if you could some of the elbows and ankles here, youd congratulate me.

My last two projects are slowly coming along and they have to do with trees and fishing. To make this short. I have 300 papaya trees growing in my back yard. Later theyll need to be transplated. But waiting and watering is key. My other project is oyster:crab farming. I have set up oyster traps down in the mangrove trees to collect oysters for both eating and selling. I also bought all of the supplies to make crab traps so I can start eating crab cakes. Theyre experimental projects so well see how they go. EIther way, oysters and crabs here are tasty.

Well thats a little bit of whats going on here in Africa. I know that it took forever for you to read through this all; but I havent posted a blog in a while and Im sure its given you something to do today. Take it easy everyone. Thanks for the support. Now you know what Ive been up to.