Back in the Merry Old Land of Senegal

Been back in Senegal for a couple of weeks now, and had a lot of fun giving gifts from America. Here's a picture of the little outfits I brought back for Sadio and Aliu. Aliu's got his toy motorcycle there, too. The best gift by far was the Red Cross solar and hand-cranked radio, which works beautifully. It's interesting to see how people here view things that we might call 'green' or 'sustainable' in an appeal to trends or political standpoints, like this radio. They just see it as something that is obviously desirable and superior - 'why would anyone ever use batteries again if they have the money to buy technology like that?' they wonder. It's a good question - we've been using solar powered basic calculators almost exclusively for years, and yet we don't see solar powered cell phones/chargers or radios or even solar panels for homes as anything more than an item for situations where conventional power isn't available (e.g. Red Cross radio), or a sort of statement from people who are 'into' the sustainable movement. Why isn't there unanimous excitement in America for development and improvement of the kinds of technology that make us less dependent on conventional power sources?



Wopa also had her baby a little while after I had left - a little girl who is my namesake, Diatou! Here's a picture of the romper I brought back for her. There are also some family photos behind her - that day they brought out stacks upon stacks of pictures they had saved from previous volunteers and local photographers and we looked at them for hours. It just seemed like such a universal family thing to do.

By the time I got back, the millet had been harvested, and now every few days the women spend the entire afternoon threshing it. Now all the field work is revolving around the peanut harvest. The men are digging up the peanut plants, letting them dry, and piling them into huge mounds (you can see Usman, our adopted Guinean transient worker, carrying the smaller piles on a big stick). The women and I then spend our mornings in the field picking up the stray peanuts that have been detached from the plants in the course of uprooting. That's a ton of peanuts, and provides for our household's daily peanut sauces. Within the next couple of weeks, some of the rice should be ripe and we'll start harvesting (here's Nene proudly showing off our faro). It'll just be Nene and I, since the young women don't really know how to harvest, according to them, and they also have the millet threshing to keep them busy.














For the past week I've been in Thies with Tumani Diamanka, the pilot farmer in Sare Gagna, for another training. It was a little disruptive to leave site again so soon, but it's been a good training, and I've gotten to see a bunch of volunteer friends that I missed.

The pilot farmers learned about grafting, composting, companion vegetable planting, pest treatment, and accounting and budgeting. Here are a few pictures from the classroom and the practical grafting workshop.

Demba Sidibe, probably the most knowledgeable tree guy in all of Senegal, is our agfo program director. Here he's talking to the pilot farmers about grafting and taking care of mango seedlings.

I think Thies is my favorite city in Senegal, although it would be nice if people here spoke Pulaar so I could communicate. There are many good restaurants here, several educational institutions, pretty neighborhoods... One of our favorite restaurants here is a chicken place that we refer to as 'Chicken Diby'. For approximately $5 you get half a roasted chicken, a salad, and french fries. You can see the guy cooking over the fire behind the restaurant.