Tuesday, January 8, 2008

First Month in Village

Well things here have been absolutely terrific. I have just come into town for a quick trip to the bank and to see some friends and now I'm heading back up-country.

Some of the highlights of the last month have included Tobaski, Christmas, and New Years all of which were celebrated with my friends in and around my village in Foni Jarrol. Tobaski is a Muslim holiday only a few days before Christmas where families come together to reflect on the past year, pray for all the good things that have happened or hoped to happen, and enjoy good food. People raise or purchase rams that are slaughtered on that day after prayers and then eat and eat and eat. You basically go from one compound to the next enjoying people's great cooking and hospitality. I got to meet a lot of people this way because family comes in from all over the country and spends a few days or a week. Teenage kids who go to school in the Kombos and people who have traveled away for business all come home for the holidays. Because of all the people who were there we got to do some work including clearing fire-breaks and building a luumo (outdoor flea market and farmers market). Christmas there was basically a continuation of the Tobaski festivities but many people wished me a good holiday. Santa was good to me: I got a new rope made from woven rice bags and a discarded plastic oil jug so that I could fetch water from the well at the garden. New Years was spent at a small bar on the mangrove-covered banks of a tributary to the River Gambia in a small market town called Kalagi. The owner of the restaurant there treated three of my PC friends and I to a huge plate of domoda (peanut sauce and beef over rice) and played Gambian music on a beat-up cassette player. The scenery and the company were all terrific.

My host family is really great and I enjoy spending a lot of time with them. For the holidays my two older brothers from the Kombos brought their families and so the family of three that I normally live with swelled to about eighteen. The village is a great place to be; laid-back yet hard working. I live in a Fula village but all around are Mandinkas and Jolas so everywhere I go I get taught new words and phrases. Its hard enough to learn one new language but three is over-the-top. But its necessary at least to get the greetings, learn how to count, and figure-out the words for "Cut me some slack, I'm new here."

The work that I'm doing is really rewarding. Several villages in Senegal and five in The Gambia have joined forces to create the Mankana Development Association of Fulas, Mandinkas, and Jolas interested in bringing sustainable development and environmental protection to their habitation. This has introduced me to many people who are intelligent and forward-thinking which makes my job so much easier because I don't have to look to find them scattered about-- they have weekly meetings and already are working on some very admirable causes.

They worked really hard to organize the weekly luumo which will bring new products into the area as well as provide a centralized place for people to sell vegetables, prepared food, and crafts. We cleared a large plot of land under some ancient Silk Cottons and Baobab trees, dug hundreds of holes to erect sticks cut from the bush with machetes, and arranged palm fronds on top to create a nice shaded structure. Before this, the nearest market was half a days walk away. The opening day was a remarkable event with over a thousand people in attendance including the Governor of the Western Region and the TV news crew from Banjul. They slaughtered a bull and prepared enough food to feed everyone. The Koran readers came and provided spiritual guidance and there was music, singing, and dancing. Now, on Wednesdays, people can come in from all around to buy many useful products for everyday life. Also, sourmilk and deep-fried pancakes!

I am also working on my own garden beds in the massive women's garden just outside the village. These women are really successful growers and my four little beds are hardly a demonstration because people come by and give me sound advice all the time. I have a lot to learn-- growing vegetables in Africa is tough work. I have mentu, supamil, gille', batanse, loge, and toome (tomato, cabbage, peppers, eggplant, garlic, and onion). Also in the garden I am building a large compost so that we can try to improve the soil there. We have lime trees and pigeon pea trees scattered about and two open wells for fetching water.

My community is very interested in preserving the forests around there because it is one of the last and best examples of old-growth forest in the country. We are working on establishing tree nurseries and wood lots of a variety of species to try to replenish what is being taken by loggers as well as create a sustainable means of income for the next generation.

So the bees in Africa are really mean. In New Mexico I could manage my hives with a veil and long sleeves without ever getting stung once and people could observe from a close distance without any protective clothing at all. Here, when one bee attacks all the bees attack. I have a Kenyan Top Bar hive near my house that I was clearing some brush away from. I had the foresight to don my suit which is full-body protection of thick cotton and a tightly-woven mesh veil. Didn't matter. Instantly I was covered with angry bees stinging my suit and coating the veil so that I could hardly see out. There must have been a thousand bees literally clinging to me making the most angry sounds I have ever heard. My blood pressure skyrocketed and I was swatting at myself with my gloved hands. Several found ways into my suit and I was stung inside my nostril, and all about my face and neck. It took an hour of wiping my suit with weeds to get them all off as I wandered around trying to get away from the hive while not bringing the angry bees back into the village.

Language is the hardest part. I spend a lot of time with people who laugh and have dynamic conversations but I have really no idea at all what they are saying. It is frustrating and can be lonely at times. Its incentive to keep learning everyday how to communicate.

Well, I have to get going so that I can catch the gelegele or I won't make it back today. Tomorrow the group I am working with is laboring on President Jammeh's farm so I don't want to miss that!

I hope that all is well wherever you are.

Bismillah. A Jarama.