Blam! Restaurant!

We're back in construction mode and I can't believe how fast things are happening compared to the slow months of the rainy season. My counterparts and the masons we hired say all the construction will be finished by the end of April. Unlike most of the predictions about timelines in West Africa, they just might be right this time.

The roof rafters are made from palm wood from the fan palm trees like the one in the left of the picture. The horizontal supports are bamboo. When we were putting of the roof we spent a lot of time just chilling there because it was such a pleasant place to be.

A line level is something I introduced to my counterparts and the masons. (A line level is a small bubble level that attaches to a string which allows one to level two points which a relatively far apart.) They exist here in Senegal, but very few people know of about them. Fortunately, we hired different masons this year and they are familiar with levels. When they started working and I saw that they brought their own levels I thanked them. They said, "Yeah, of course, how else would we know if something was level if we didn't have them." I argued for a week with last years masons over that very statement.

Setting the posts for the roof of the restaurant.

Thatching.

The view from the corner of the restaurant overlooking the ecolodge and the valley that leads to the waterfall.

Some of the 1,500 mud bricks we had made this year.

Samalé and I getting our exercise in!

Putting up the half-hut at one end of the restaurant that will serve as the reception, room for the solar power equipment and fridge, and sleeping quarters for the guard.

It's now Tuesday the 15th of May. When I come back into Kedougou in a week I'll have photos to show of the FINISHED restaurant!

Paradise Garden Photos

Finally, as promised, here are some photos of the "paradise garden." It has been a real pleasure to work with these guys the past few months.

Right to left: Bassirou, Amadou, Thierno Mamadou

Thierno Mamadou's father started the garden and Bassirou is now the third generation to be working the land.

Avocado and banana trees!

When I first showed up to check out what I thought was going to be a small garden with a few struggling beds, this is what I was greeted with.

One of two natural springs that sit uphill from the garden and make all the magic possible.

The other spring. To water they just put a hose in the pool and let gravity do the rest. It's possible that there could be another spring fed garden in Senegal, but given the topography not very likely.

When I first came to the garden they asked, "We made the garden beds the size it said to in the book you gave us, we also put in the amount of manure it recommended, and planted the cabbage with the spacing listed. Did we do it right?" I have never heard of any gardener that worked with a PCV in either of the countries I served in who was able to see the value of a technique just from reading about it and then try it out. What's more, when I suggested that they mulch their beds, the immediately started to do so. I've recommended mulching to a dozen other gardeners, but none of them were willing to try it. They only water the mulched beds half as much now.

I rigged up this "surveying level" so we could determine the elevation drop from the springs to the center of the garden. I'm working with another US funded NGO called Africare to design a system of reservoirs that will be able to store more water than the current dirt basins and could even support a drip irrigation system.

Measuring the quantity of water that comes out of the source. By timing how long it took to fill up a 1.5 L water bottle we were able to determine that in a 24 hour period the two sources release over 10,000 L of water. When we did the calculation, Thierno and Bassirou couldn't believe it. Bassirou said he didn't sleep that night because he was thinking about all of the possibilities of what they could do with that much water. For perspective, half of the wells in the village are already dry and in order to water the other garden in town the women carry buckets of water on their heads from their homes to the garden, which is over half a kilometer away. That's why I call this garden a paradise.

Fofana, an employee of Africare, setting up the sign for a gardening training that Peace Corps, Africare, and Trees for the Future collaborated on. Over 60 people attended from 4 villages.

Starting the training.

The really cool thing about this training was that it wasn't just theoretical. The Thierno and Bassirou were already practicing many of the techniques we wanted to teach. We started the training by taking a stroll through the garden and asking to explain what the had done. Pictured here is an intensive Moringa bed. Moringa is a tree that produces delicious leaves that are essentially multivitamins. This is a method of cultivating Moringa as if it were a vegetable and not a tree to get a maximum about of leaf production. Thierno saw that I had a bed like this behind my hut and started this one all on his own.

The cabbages liked the mulch!

Explaining the benefits of mulching. I asked the crowd what was the most difficult part about gardening in Senegal. They all immediately responded that watering was the hardest and most time consuming. I then asked Thierno how often he watered his beds with mulch and the ones without. He responded that where there was mulch he only watered half as much and the ground was still wetter than the beds without mulch. There we audible gasps from the crowd. The crazy thing is that you can talk yourself hoarse saying things like this, but until the people see it practiced by one of their neighbors, they just won't try it. Now mulching is catching on like wildfire in Segou.

Karumba (in the green tshirt), an employee of Trees for the Future, leading a training on tree nurseries. We are fortunate to have him as a work partner as he understands gardening like we do, but speaks much better Pulaar, and Mandinka, and Bassari, and French.

Last time I was at the garden we turned the stream running from the spring into an automatically watered nursery for bamboo cuttings. Ask anyone and they will say that bamboo is getting harder to find these days, but not everyone is willing to do something about it.

I love these guys.

Sue and Dave's final episode in Jrl

Door to Zach's village
Zach's hut and our home for a week
Road to next village
A family compound
Installation
Zach's two Moms
Drawing water for bucket baths or cloths washing


Small Termite mound near village
Daily life
Sharing your hut with your parents
A refreshing swim in a local waterfall
Road to Zach's waterfall
A friend with her two twins
Village children checking us out
Cold drinks and a card game
Neighbors and cooks
A farewell picture with the chief and his wife

Last week in Senegal

It has taken me over a year to post this entry. I realize now that I don’t want to let go of this trip and that has everything to do with my not finishing the journal. Zach is nearing the end of this episode in his life so, I suppose, I must complete mine. We traveled in luxury from Tambaconda to Segou in a Peace Corps vehicle that had shocks, upholstery and AC! The last section of the road was little more than a rutted out river bed (rainy season only. Quite rough! We were quite the phenomenon as no one could think of a time when parents of a PCV were at an instillation. It was a privilege to be with Zach when he was being officially presented to the village. We sat in the Chiefs hut and with Zach as the interpreter; we were welcomed and part of the greetings and acceptance ceremony. Unfortunately, the village chief’s brother’s mother-in-law passed away that night and there was no village celebration for Zach. Zach was able to settle in and immediately start work on a nearby community’s road project. This was not a Peace Corps project. It was a French Youth project (Sort of a scared straight type thing, but everyone had a blast!) Dave and I spent the day under a Mango tree washing clothes and greeting villagers as best we could (No common language). We lived in Zach’s hut for those 5 days. The Chief’s daughter-in-law, who was very young and not much of a cook yet, fed us. (A lot of over cooked rice and dirt!) Thank goodness for our private stash of Nuttella! After several days of warm filtered water as our only drink, we hiked two and one-half miles to a nearby village that had a campament (read “with a cooler”) so I could feed my addiction to Fanta (made with cane sugar in Africa, not high fructose corn syrup) a wonderfully refreshing drink and cold! Dave and Zach had a cold Flag beer, but I was totally hooked on Fanta! The walk back the next day took us past a wonderful nursery garden a local man had started. Zach was hoping to meet this man. We enjoyed our time under the Mango tree writing in the diary and getting to know some of the villagers, but this ended all too soon and we were headed back to Dakar after two days in the Peace Corp house in Kedagou, while Zach and a villager attended an ecotourism workshop. We met up with Joey and some friends. We had stayed with her our first night there which was a welcoming place to start and end our journey (Thank you, Joey) The PCVs were very impressed with our staying power. We felt we were members of the club and I am all over my regret that I did not do Peace Corps. Suddenly we were boarding the plane and tearfully saying goodbye. It is a testimony to Zach’s and my relationship that after 5 weeks of taking care of his mother, Zach was reluctant to see us go, as was I. The trip worked because Zach took such good and insightful care of us. Thank you seems too little to say, Zach. I love you, Mom

Post script: Experiencing a new culture this way has forever changed my perspective. We have a tendency in the US to be myopic and narrow-minded. It is dangerous and self-limiting. It seems to me that we are loosing a grip on reality and what is really important. We have a chance to live in a great democracy and sometimes I think we are acting like spoiled children. It is time to grow up and deal with the hard stuff, responsible big business, the environment, our education system and subsistent energy to name a few. Please if you have a chance, visit a third world country and come back and be part of the solution. I intend to!

The end is in sight!

Today I officially submitted for my final close of service (COS) date: July 12th 2011! It was just in time too. I realized that if I get the paperwork soon that two days from now (Thursday) I would have ceased to be a volunteer. I guess that's why I only received half my months stipend. Whoops and thanks in advance to the PC staff for processing my paperwork late.

Having a final date is a really awesome feeling. Last week I sat down with my counterparts and asked them to come up with a timeline by which they can finish all of the work so I can go home. The program they came up with would have everything finished by the end of April. I don't think that it will possibly be done that early so I planned on them finishing it a month later. Then, knowing how things go here, I added the whole month of June just to be sure. Add the 4th of July party, which I won't get in France, and a week to finish up paperwork stuff and I end up with July 12th.

Immediately after COSing I'll travel to Mauritania (don't worry, just the safe bits) to say goodbye to my old host family there. Even now I still get a call from someone in Bababe about once a week. This is a really good example of a cultural difference between Americans and West Africans. I have friends and family in America that I have known my whole life who have never called or emailed nor have I called or emailed them. It is much cheaper for my American friends, family, and I to stay in touch with each other than it is for my Mauritanian friends and host family and I to stay in touch. However, even though they have only known me for a year as opposed to years and years they call me every couple of weeks. Staying in contact with your friends and family, even if it is just to greet them is of huge cultural importance here. While sometimes I groan when they call, yet again, just to say hello I have to say that I really like it. When I left Mauritania I put on a bracelet that was supposed to go to one of the girls attending the summer environmental camp I was going to be running and I promised my host family that I would not take it off until I came back to see them. When I go back in July it will probably be for the last time.

On this same sad note, I had pangs of what it would feel like to leave Segou for the first time the other day. Just thinking about it as I was biking to Kedougou filled me with much more emotion than I expected. I cried when I was told we were being pulled out of Mauritania and my relationships were not nearly as developed there. In Segou I really feel like I have thrown in my lot with the future of the village. While I cannot say that I live exactly like a villager and am stuck with the same limited opportunities as a villager I feel like I care about the future of the people of Segou just as much as anyone and have done the most that I was capable of to increase their opportunities. Leaving a place when I feel like that is going to be hard.

Another interesting feeling that is arising from having a COS date is the sense that the rest of my life is beginning. I didn't have this feeling when I graduated from college because even before I started going to Clarkson I knew I wanted to join the Peace Corps after. I also only had one month of transition time in between. Now, I'm leaving the Peace Corps and I feel like a world of opportunities are open to me. My first move will be to go to France for a month to actually learn to speak the language correctly. After that my plan is to hang around online forums and ship yards in the Canary Islands to try to get a ride/work on a sail boat going back to the Americas. I can't think of a better time in life to cross the Atlantic by boat so why not now? When I finally do make it back to the US I plan on traveling the country visiting with friends and family until I can find a job, hopefully in DC. I'll be looking for something in the environmental sector (govt., NGO, or business) but for the first time in my life the next step is not entirely clear. I have to say I quite like it.

Sorry about not getting the photos up yet. It will happen I promise.

Whew!

What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been. Here is the rundown:

- Hurrying up to finish thatching the roof of the restaurant before

- The American Ambassador came! and

- Installing a rope pump before

- The national Senegalese TV channel came to film! and

- Landscaping the ecolodge before

- The Peace Corps Senegal Director visited the ecolodge!

- All of this not mention finding a garden that legitimately qualifies as paradise just outside of Segou!

With all of that going on I’m not even sure where to start!

About a month ago I was chatting with our director and he mentioned that RTS, the national TV station, was going to be producing an hour long special on Peace Corps Senegal for the 50^th anniversary of the Peace Corps. Our director was a volunteer in Dindefello, the village just past mine, 20 years ago so they were already planning on filming there. They were also planning on filming the rope pump project that another volunteer is working on. So said, “Hey, we’re going to be installing a rope pump out in the ecolodge, why don’t you come out and film the two projects on your way out to Dindefello?” They agreed and scheduled us into the Ambassador’s visit.

In preparation for the Ambassador, RTS, and our director, my counterparts and I have been working like crazy to polish off the ecolodge the last few weeks: nailing together the bamboo frame for the roof, climbing up into trees to trim branches that were in the way of the view of the valley, clearing brush, arranging for over 300 rolls of thatching for the roof, and clearing the paths in the ecolodge. In the end we didn’t quite get the roof finished before the big wig circus arrived, but perhaps that was better because we were able to show the project as a work in progress. During the RTS visit on Wednesday I got a few photos, but during the Ambassador’s visit on Thursday and our director’s visit on Saturday I was so busy showing them around I didn’t get any photos. Fortunately the Ambassador’s press secretary has offered to share all of her photos. When I get them I’ll put them up.

It’s really great having the restaurant in place. One of the key ideas that we changed from the previous attempts at building an ecolodge was that we were going to build it in an area where the restaurant would have a great view. This is an idea that often lacking in tourist lodges in Senegal. One lodge in Dindefello actually went so far as to put the toilets right in between the restaurant and a beautiful view of the surrounding cliffs! Being able to sit under the nearly complete roof of the restaurant and look out over the valley and our work is a wonderful feeling. Also, once we get the floor poured, we can begin to advertise the ecolodge as being open. We were hoping to be at this point three months ago, but well, it just didn’t happen.

All three visits went well. The folks from RTS had never been to Segou before and were really impressed with the beauty of the area. They filmed the installation of the rope pump and a bit of the Ambassador’s visit, which was quite short. She was only in Segou for about 30 minutes and I struggled to share the history of the project, talk about the work we were currently doing, what was planned for the future and still have time to introduce her to people from our community. It seemed as if it was over just as quickly as it started. Still she was very impressed and appreciative of the work we were doing. Our director’s visit was also brief but equally great. Twenty years ago he started the first tourism lodge in Dindefello. The lodge still exists today but has suffered from many problems of mismanagement stemming from the fact that the whole community owns it and the management gets changed by political whim, not based on the long term interest of the lodge or the community. It was partly from the example of the lodge started by our director that we decided to make the ecolodge in Segou privately owned. When he was visiting, our director said in hindsight he wished he had done the same think in Dindefello. Granted we benefited from his experience, but its not too shabby when your boss says you did a better job than he did!

Now that the parade of big wigs is over, we are going to sit down and plan out the rest of the work that needs to be done to finish the ecolodge while we wait for the funding to arrive. Peace Corps has all of it, but it takes at least a month for them to get it to the volunteers. This delay is huge inconvenience and inexcusable, but there is nothing we can do except wait.

Paradise Found

Almost ever since I arrived in Segou, this guy Thierno Mamadou Diallo has been asking for my help with this, that, and the other thing. I’m sorry to say that I brushed him off a lot at first. It’s often very difficult to tell the difference between someone who is sincerely asking for help and someone just looking for a handout. I was also plenty busy with the ecolodge. However it slowly dawned on me that he was serious and, more importantly, motivated. Whenever I was around he would lecture whoever else was present about how Americans don’t like to give money but they like to teach people how to do things and how much better that is that just giving money. Essentially, he completely understood what PCVs come here to do. So I started hanging out with him and his family. They are the bread bakers in town and for the longest time I thought that baking was their main occupation. I was very wrong.

Lately I have been visiting their mud oven occasionally to chat with them and teach them how to make different kinds of bread. They were really excited about corn bread because they grow corn, but they can’t grow wheat here. Cutting the bread with corn could significantly reduce their costs. While I was working with them on that they kept repeatedly asking me to visit their garden. I always told them I would when I had the time but never made it a priority. I had always pictured their garden as a normal village garden. That they would have a few beds in a fenced in area near their house and that their ambition to grow a lot of vegetables would be limited by the difficultly of having to pull water out of a well. This was part of the reason I never took a serious interest in it. This was a big mistake.

I remember now that Thierno Mamadou was very interested in an intensive Moringa garden bed I made behind my hut. Moringa is a “miracle” tree that has leaves that are so nutritious they are basically multivitamins. It will also grow well in dry conditions. Even though it’s a tree if you plant the seeds close together and keep cutting the trunks back you can grow them like they were a vegetable. This allows one to keep harvesting the leaves almost indefinitely. I also remember that he had been asking me for a while for a book in French on gardening. I finally found the book for him shortly before I visited their garden.

One day last week Bassirou, Thierno Mamadou’s son, and I set off to finally go take a look at their garden. I was surprised to learn that it was not right next to their house. Then I was surprised to learn that it was not even in the village. I was even more surprised to learn that it was not just outside the village. We had been walking for about twenty minutes when all the sudden a valley opened up below us and I saw a HUGE garden full of mango, banana, papaya, orange, lime, and avocado trees. Not to mention the well laid out garden beds. Before I even stepped foot into the garden I could tell it was the best garden I have seen in the area. However there were bigger surprises to come.

Once we climbed over the fence Bassirou immediately took me to the garden beds and showed me how he planted the cabbage and onions. “We used the recommended spacing from the book you gave us. Did we do it right?” he said. I was floored. Disseminating information is normally very difficult. Culturally Senegalese don’t like to share information and they are therefore wary of anything anyone tells them. They also don’t like to try anything new. PCVs often give crystal clear trainings on why certain gardening techniques are better, including physical evidence, and still people will stick to their current way of doing things. What Bassirou and his father had just done was to read something in a book and follow it exactly without anyone proving to them that it was really going to work. Moreover, they also put in the recommended amount of manure into the beds before they started planting, which they read about in the book. When I read the book I didn’t even notice it said that! The next surprise came when I was looking around and saw a perfect intensive Moringa bed. Thierno Mamadou had seen what I had done and copied it on his own. When I told a fellow volunteer about this she started beating her head because she is currently trying everything she can think of to get at least one person in her village to make an intensive Moringa bed. The surprises weren’t over yet though. Turning around I noticed that there was a hose with water running out of it sitting on the ground. I hadn’t noticed it at first because it was so impossible that it could be there. I knew they did not have enough money for a deep bore well and motor pump or even to pay for the gas if it already existed. I quickly followed the hose up the hill until I found what it was attached to: nothing. They just had it sitting in the pool of water created by a natural spring. Since the spring was up the hill from the garden, all they had to do was stick the end of a hose in it and they could water their whole garden! At this point my mind was exploding with the possibilities of what the could do with their garden. However the mental hyperventilation really started when Bassirou said, “Oh yeah, we have two springs like this.” For those of you following along at home, you have to keep in mind that it only rains from May to September here, so gardening during the rest of the year requires watering by hand every day and with the exception of Thierno Mamadou’s garden, that means pulling water out of a well do to so. Having water that naturally runs out the end of a hose here is paradise.

I’m kicking myself now for not going to see their garden earlier. If I had I would have spent A LOT of time there working with them instead of laying in my hammock reading when I didn’t have anything going on at the ecolodge. It’s really nice to be working in the dirt and growing things again. Safe to say from now on, I’ll be there a lot.

So you want to join the Peace Corps?

This video is pretty hilarious and pretty accurate, although it might not be as funny to those who haven't lived it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-wDq17zyN0