First off, I apologize for not posting a legitimate update
for what at this point must be months.
Sitting at a computer and typing just never seems to appeal to me, so
I’ve been putting it off. Plus I prefer using my internet time for more
productive means, such as the following comparison between my baby friend, Le
Vieux, and Pixar celebrity, Mike Wazowski.
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| I can’t even tell which is a baby and which is an animated monster. |
In-Service Training
One of my past month was spent at In-Service Training (IST;
PC sure loves its acronyms). This
was a workshop 3 months into my service when all the volunteers from my stage
met up in Mamou for 3 weeks. It is
meant to provide any training we volunteers, after 3 months at site, feel we
require for our job. This included
local languages, a cross-sectoral exchange, project design and management, and
how to fill out US government paperwork.
Taxes seem like nothing after a Volunteer Reporting Form!
While these sessions varied in their levels of usefulness,
the most useful thing was simply talking with all the other PCVS about our past
three months, It was nice to hear
that other people were having similar problems, like waiting two hours for a
meeting that never happens, and learn about all the awesome projects people have
accomplished or are planning, like an environmental education club, a community
garden and fruit orchard, a youth entrepreneurship group, a city wide waste
management program (the list seriously doesn’t end). Not only is it inspiring to hear all the things PCVs are
doing, but it as a great venue to bounce ideas off each other, especially since
there isn’t much opportunity for that at site.
It was also nice to get out of Kankan. Since I live in my regional capital, I
don’t get to have a weekend “vacation” from site each month. Plus its nice to have a change of
scenery once in a while. In face,
this may be the longest I’ve stayed in one place without traveling for years. I got out of Kankan at just the right
time, too. The city’s water pump
was broken my last week here, and it was scorching hot, which mean I was
sweating a LOT and not washing my hair AT ALL. I did not smell great on that bush taxi ride to Mamou.
Mamou was like a whole different country. It rained nearly everyday and almost, almost got cold at night. There was an unlimited amount of water
and all the foliage was bright green.
We took an AGFO field trip to a city about 2 hours north, Dalaba, and it
was there I realized how different Haute Guinea and the Fouta are, at least physically..
In Haute, the road is flat and straight, leading through a savanna filled with
baobobs and monkey, while the road in the Fouta curves around the edges of
hillsides (reminding me somewhat of Italy) to ultimately end in a grove of
towering pine trees. We visited a
hotel with an overlook that opened onto what seemed a never-ending expanse of
valley after valley.
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| This picture really doesn’t do it justice. |
I still love Kankan, but I will definitely spend some time
hiking the Fouta while in Guinea.
Another great thing about IST was the two-day counterpart
workshop at the end. Of course,
not everyone has a counterpart as stellar as mine, so opinions may differ as to
the usefulness of these two days.
Conde, my counterpart, really took to the project design and management
part and suggested a project promoting moringa (more info on this later) that
he had been mulling over. We also
did a PowerPoint presentation (that he helped make) about Fasso Demen, our
groupement for the other AGFO volunteers and their counterparts. We left with a newfound motivation to
get all our projects started.
Of course, I can’t talk about IST without mentioning our
dear fried Bud. Bud wasn’t his
real name, but the mechanics shirt he wore our first day there read ‘Bud’, so
that’s what we called him. He
always made sure we were well supplied with cold beer and not a mea went by
without a marriage proposal from old Bud.
Tree Nurseries Galore
I’ve recently started two tee nurseries, three if you count
my own personal one. One is with
Green Hand Action as part of our cashew reforestation project. It is in the edge of a nearby village
called Balandou and the plantation it self is very much en brousse (in the bush), which is great because we are working
with farmers that other extension agents don’t get to because of a lack of
accessibility.
Being in the bush does have its drawbacks, however. While we were installing the tree
nursery, the GHA team came upon a snake eating a bird. We all, including the snake, freaked
out and started running away.
Unfortunately, the snake chose the same direction as me, down a steep
riverbank. I had a watering can in
one hand and an orange Fanta in the other and basically fell over myself trying
to run from the snake. After
barely catching myself from falling in the river, I managed to escape with just
a tear in my pants. And I didn’t
even spill a drop of my Fanta.
Snakes aside, the GHA nursery was a success. We got nearly 300 cashew seeds sown,
nearly all of which have sprouted.
We will be buying 300 more seedlings from a farmer in Kissidougou, then
transplanting the best 500 to 5 hectares of land in July. So far, it has been a really great
process for GHA to go through, not just for the trees themselves, but to learn
how to run a successful project.
The second tree nursery I’ve set up is with my women’s
gardening group, Fasso Demen, as the start of our live fence project. Because livestock roams free here, all
gardens must be fenced in. Even
with a fence, the goats will manage to get in and feast on a farmer’s
lettuce. Most farmers in Guinea
can’t afford barbed wire fences or even chicken wire, so each year they build a
fence out of tree branches or bamboo, if available. Not only does this take a lot of time and effort on the
farmer’s part, but it also means a lot of trees are cut down to make a fence
each year. Hence, the idea of a
live fence.
This is a fence made of living trees, usually fast growing
species with straight trunks, like a fence post. These are spaced fairly close together with smaller shrubs
in between to create a fence. Some
farmers will eventually reinforce it with barbed wire or chain link, if they
have the means. There are other
benefits to a live fence, besides reducing labor and protecting trees. Trees in a garden provide shade, for
plants and people, and will help[ keep the area more humid, like a
microclimate. Overtime, the
presence of trees can even raise the water table. The leaves of the trees can be used for mulching or
composting, and since we planted nitrogen-fixing species, this will enrich the
soil even more.
We are fencing in about 150m of the garden, some of which
already has some trees in place.
My counterpart and I chose to use moringa and gliricidia, both of which
grow very fast, so are common in fencing project. Moringa has the added benefit of being promoted by the PC,
mostly for its nutritional properties, and also being the focus of another
project of mine. With me, my
counterpart, and about 5 groupement members, we were able to fill over 400
polypots (recycled water sachets) in a morning. Two weeks later, about 80% of the trees have sprouted!
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| Two groupement members and I working on the nursery |
Moringa Oli-QUOI??
Horseradish tree. Nebadayo. Moringa oliefera. L’arbre de la vie. Or simply moringa. No matter what you call it, it’s an
amazing tree. Moringa is being
pushed by PC in West Africa for its drought tolerance, ability to grow in poor
soils, and high nutritional value of its leaves and seeds. You can even use a powder of the seeds
to purify water. Though not native
to West Africa, it doesn’t show any characteristics of becoming invasive (as of
yet) and does extremely well in this climate.
My counterpart is really interested in spreading the
planting and use of moringa in our community. While at IST, he proposed the brilliant plan of distributing
dried and powdered moringa leaves, in combination with different local
spices. This way women can use
this pepper/moringa mix (for example the same way they would use pepper. We would of course talk up its
nutritional benefits and hopefully people will see how easy it can be to
improve their diets.
But wait, there’s more! After people have received their
free samples and their interest is peaked, we will go around with moringa
seedlings for anyone who is interested and willing to care for it. It’s like
Costco-style free samples for sustainable development (for some reason I feel
like those two things should never be connected). So far, we have collected mass amounts of leaves from trees
around the neighborhood and started drying them. This resulted in my grown-man counterpart shimmying up a
precariously skinny tree, while regaling me of a time he fell out of a tree as
a child, was knocked unconscious, and everyone thought he had died. It was both a hilarious and
nerve-wracking experience.
Shake Your Money Maker
Through the benevolence of a wonderful Italian volunteer who
worked with my counterpart, Fasso Demen is now the proud owner of two manually
powered water pumps, with the awesome name of “Super MoneyMaker”. the biggest problem for the women is
the water situation at the garden, e.g. the lack of it during the dry season. While there are several gardening
techniques, i.e. mulching and sunken beds, that we can implement to help
conserve water, there is no changing the fact that the garden is across the
river from brick makers whose unrestrained water use and deforestation
practices reduce the amount of water available with each passing year. With these two pumps, we will be able
to continue gardening through the dry season. Not only will this ensure that members’ families have enough
food during this period of scarcity, but any surplus can be sold for a much
higher profit than at other times.
The pumps, though manufacture elsewhere, are simple to use and
understand and all the parts can be found locally. If the pumps are a success, we hope to set up a distributer
in Guinea (currently the closest is in Bamako). Since it’s the rainy season, we don’t have much need for the
pumps at the moment, but give it a couple months!
Introducing the Newest Member of my Dembayo (Family): Quinn
I wouldn’t exactly call myself a cat person, but I’m
certainly warming up to the idea.
A friend of mine left in June, making me the adoptive mother of
Quinn. She is probably the most
loving cat I have ever met and is happiest when her face is as close to yours
as humanly/ felinely possible (endearing at 2 PM, annoying at 2 AM). My family says she is the most polite,
well-educated cat they have met. I
think this is mostly because she comes to her name, even when Guineans call
her, which is kind of a high-pitched “Quint!”. Her favorite foods are Vache
Qui Rit cheese and sardines.
Her favorite pastime is climbing to the top of my mosquito net and then
letting go, to come crashing onto my head.
***
Well, thanks for humoring me and reading what turned out to
be 4 single spaced pages of my ramblings.
I leave for Freetown the end of June, home to West Africa’s best
beaches, cold beers, and sushi.
Needless to say, I am pretty excited. To all of you in DC who are starting to experience the
wonderful muggy heat of DC summers, welcome to how I feel all year!
