Too Many Topics Here for A Cohesive Title

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.

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.

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!

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.

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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!