Do Work!

Believe it or not in between the bucket baths and the big snakes I actually do manage to get some work done in my village. I have a few big projects in the pipeline including a village wide latrine project, a school environmental education club and a new well and a womens co-op garden... but those things need to wait until the end of the rainy season and the start of the next school year. In the mean time I've been doing a lot of smaller-scale projects to help pass the time.

How many Senegalese men does it take to plant a tree?

Two weeks ago I went out to the forest with all the men in my village to plant a bunch of trees as a part of a re-forestation project run by the Eaux et Forets department. We planted about 300 thorny species trees in one fell swoop and got back to the village before mid-day prayer.

I told the Eaux et Forets officials to strike a pose
and this was what they came up with...

All of that work I did in my garden I'm finally starting to reap the benefits...not only do I have fresh okra and cucumbers right out my back door, but people are so excited about the success I've had that they want gardens of their own. Last week Bassirou brought me to the back of his compound and showed me a space he had covered with fertilizer and asked me if it would make a good garden plot. I told him if he would clear away the weeds I would provide the seeds and help prepare the beds, so for the last week I've been going over every morning to double dig and help him plant. Ideally I would love for every household to have at least one 1x4m garden plot to help supplement their diet.

Two women helping shave the soap to make neem lotion

Last Sunday I held a meeting with our local women's group to talk about getting together money to get a peanut sheller for our village (more on that in a later post) and I figured I would use that opportunity to do a neem lotion demonstration since its the height of the mosquito season. The meeting was scheduled for 10am, so of course it was 11:15 before everyone had arrived and we were ready to start. The women talked about the pros and cons of buying a nut sheller while I showed them how to make the lotion, then I divided it into little baggies so each woman could take some home to try out. So far I've gotten a lot of really positive feedback that the lotion worked to ward off the mosquitoes, and one woman even stopped me in the road town at the weekly market to tell me she was going to buy a bar of soap and make some herself. The ladies ended the meeting with a dance party. They all put their head scarves in a pile and the leader of the women's group ties them together in twos then pulls one randomly out of the pile. The two people who own the scarves have to come out and dance to get them back.  The dancing went on for a good hour before a flash rainstorm sent everyone running for cover.