The majority of Baay’s extended family arrived, largely announced, to partake in the festivities of a cousin’s wedding around the first of the month. It was akin to our experience in Touba and Mbacke, with lots of quizzing on knowledge of both Wolof and Diop family history and relations. Luckily, our Wolof has improved greatly and we were armed with Baay’s family tree that we made together a few months ago. The creation of the family tree was my attempt at sorting out brothers and sisters from aunts and uncles, in the face of a language where the terms used for siblings and cousins, and parents and aunts and uncles, are the same. It sure paid off during that week! I think we passed all tests with flying colors.
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| Heading to a wedding with my 2 cousins, and 2 little sisters (left). Yaay on her way to a naming ceremony for a family member (right). |
We had the pleasure of serving as agriculture guest trainers for the new Peace Corps Senegal Health stage the following week. In theory, now all ~60 of them know how to make a 1m x 1m vegetable nursery (and they know which veggies like to start in the nursery versus being direct seeded), how to double dig and properly amend a 1m x 3m garden bed with locally available materials (charcoal powder, wood ash, and compost or manure) and what to transplant versus direct seed into it, how to make a killer compost pile, and how to make a 1m x 1m “Moringa Intensive Bed.” Moringa, also known as “the Miracle tree,” is one of the solutions PC Senegal volunteers of all sectors extend to combat malnutrition, soil degradation, unsanitary drinking water, and nutrition challenges. Yes, it can really address all of these issues, so it is aptly nicknamed. You can read more about Moringa on Wikipedia.
After our few days of training the newest stage in Thies, we rushed home for the wedding of Sidy, our rakk bu rey, or our big little brother (check out those muscles!). We have mentioned Sidy here before. He works for our father in the dibi (bbq joint on the front of our house), and is at our house for more meals and family time than not. I like to think of Sidy as my Wolof protector (when Peter isn’t at my side, of course). He has stepped in to defend me against creepy and aggressive men, and demanding hordes of schoolchildren several times. Plus, he’s one of the few family members who actually likes our American-ish cooking, which is incredibly endearing. Sidy has been saving up to marry his sweetheart, Fatu, for years. Ever since their wedding date was set, he’s been glowing! We donned our best, and went to the wedding reception as a family.
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| Sidy got married! |
After a quick day back in Geo for Sidy’s wedding (I couldn’t miss it!), I headed back toward Thies to begin my beach vacation and Summit sandwich! Alia and I met in Kaolack and trekked to Toubab Dialaw, a beachside village about an hour south of Dakar, for a 1.5 day ladies’ vacation before our Agroforestry Summit in Thies. It was a harrowing journey (especially for Alia, who was coming from the far southeast of Senegal), but despite our cab driver having no idea where he was going (he insisted he knew exactly where he was going) and being pissed about the agreed-upon fare being too small once he actually realized where we were going (he refused to go any further at the end, and dropped us off about half mile from our destination, on a dirt road, at night), we made it! It was fun to flex Wolof skills and travel-savvy, and even more gratifying to sit on the beach (well, we mostly relaxed on a rock balcony overlooking the beach) the next day. Sobo Bade, the hotel where we stayed, is an eclectic haven with a great menu, and an even better view of the ocean. I can’t wait to go back!
The purpose of sector-specific summits is to get everyone together in one place to provide training on any new information, share learnings from successes and failures and best practices in general, and for AgFos, to swap tree seeds! Highlights included a field trip to a large beekeeping operation (and subsequent purchases of large amounts of Acacia honey!) and a huge 100 hectare fruit orchard, whose owner also keeps a range of animals, including the largest cow I have ever seen (apparently he broke a female cow’s back by mounting her last year. Ouch!), ducks and geese, pigeons, ostrich, antelope and reindeer, camels, and sulcata tortoises. Needless to say, I was in heaven.
Following summit, the Kaolack region AgFo Volunteers trekked once again to Popenguine for a 2-day Kaolack region volunteer vacation on the beach. Aside from pure hedonism, the intention was to give us all a chance to connect and get to know each other better, in hopes that it will help us all to be more connected, and thus more productive, in the future. Brilliant idea!
Happy Cat and Lady continue to grow! Each time we come home, it seems they are exponentially bigger. They still love to play together, and occasionally groom each other. Happy Cat has perfected the surprise back mount and neck bite move- check it out in the movie below. Peter has taken to calling them “The Handicapped Hurricane” and “Brown N’ White Dynamite.”
This month, we worked with 6 farmers in Nguick to create tree nurseries (we call them pepiñeers here, à la Français ), and extended them seeds based on their goals for their fields. Most of them wanted a mix of citrus and fruit seed for orchard trees, and thorny species for live fences. We’ll keep you posted on how they grow!
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Happy Cat helping to sort cashew seeds
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We have a small window with which to prepare and seed pepiñeers here, so the trees are ready to outplant (to be transferred from the tree sacks where they live in the nursery, to their permanent home in the soil) during the rainy season. This gives them the best chance of survival during their critical first year. With all the travel this month, it’s been hard to find enough time to accomplish everything. Thankfully, being 2 people, we were able to divide and conquer. While I was working in the village and sorting out which seed was going where, my wonderful and resourceful husband spent a few days gathering materials and creating our own tree pepiñeer at the Eaux et Forets office (EeF is similar to the U.S. Forestry service) in Guinguineo. This means we’ll have our own trees to extend to farmers if their pepiñeers don’t survive, or if they weren’t able to make their own pepiñeer for some reason. As long as our trees survive, that is.
There have been lots of winged creatures about this month. A giant flock of what I presume to be Cattle Egrets have descended on Guinguineo. They are roosting in the big Baobob trees in our backyard. We’ve learned it’s best not to be outside when they’re all flying to roost in the evening, unless you want to be splattered with white, fishy-smelling guano!
In other bird news, we have 2 new additions to our family: Ndeye Penda and Idrissa Diop, the chickens. Our siblings were kind enough to name them after us. We’re excited about the prospect of home-grown meat and eggs in the future!
And then there’s the grasshoppers. We’re in the midst of a serious invasion, and these nasty buggers are decimating the few gardens that exist this time of year. Happy Cat and Lady O, however, are thrilled to have many disposable play toys on hand. Peter catches them and puts them on our porch for Happy Cat to hunt. What a good Dad!
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| A heap of dead grasshoppers at my counterpart's field. |
As I write this update, all of our bags are packed, the house is clean, instructions have been given regarding the care of the pets and the garden and the pepiñeer, work partners and counterparts have been reminded that we’ll be away, and I’m ready to head to Dakar at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning, where I’ll meet Peter (he’s currently down south in Kolda for his Urban Agriculture Summit). It’s always hard to leave Guinguineo, but I am beyond excited to be headed on safari with my family who I have missed so much, and my husband whose animal-spotting skills now rival mine.
In April:
1) The biggest challenge we have faced: It is so. darn. hot. that it’s a real challenge to function between 10 AM and 6 PM. My brain turns to mush: my Wolof seriously suffers, my motivation disappears, and my head hurts. Everybody else feels the same way, so it’s really hard to get any work partners to do anything (read: work on their pepiñeers!) during this time.
2) The most exciting/best experience: Reading about and packing for our honeymoon/Dad’s 60th birthday family trip to South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. It’s really happening [inshallah]!
3) What we are most grateful for: Electricity. Hands down. Why? Because it means we can buy ice and have cold water, a life-saver in the heat of the day when your body doesn’t want to ingest anything warm (like lunch, or hot water)! It also powers our fan, which makes the heat a lot more bearable.
4) Language Factoid: Sama xol dafa sedd is a term used to express happiness, love, and/or gratitude. It literally means “My heart is cold.” That was a tough phrase to embrace, given that we Americans associate cold hearts with evil. Not so in Senegal!
Looking forward, May will bring…
- Our honeymoon/Dad’s 60th birthday family trip to South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana!!!!!!! We are beyond excited!
- Hoping that all of the tree seeds that we’ve planted will survive our absence and be well on their way to becoming transplant-able seedlings.
Jamm Rekk,
Kaitlin
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