Cold Season Photo Essay, March 2015

The searing heat has begun: blistering, sand-filled wind whips across the landscape and barrages your eyes.  Sadly, just two weeks ago it was chilly enough that I woke up wrapped in a sleeping bag.  In an attempt to remember that ephemeral, miraculous phase of the year, I present a collection of photos from the cold season.

Sunset in the bayobab grove.

Finally, a photo of me in my natural habitat.  Me, biking, while
eating food, and making funny faces.

Pounding millet; the millet harvest is done, the heads have dried, and now
the entire female population of my village pounds the millet for our daily dinner. 

Millet heads, local variety.

Pounding the millet with the heavy wooden mortar and pestle.  

After the pounding, the chaf and millet grains are mixed together.
To separate them women pour it from one container to another, letting
the wind blow the lighter chaff away and allowing the heavier millet
grains to fall into the container underneath.

Mboure Community Garden; one of my main work projects.  In the cool season
it is in full swing with women from the local women's groups who
have their own plots of hibiscus, tomatoes, eggplant, moringa, casava, etc.  Trees in the
garden have been a constant debate between me and the community.  

Inter-cropping and amended garden beds are two of the technologies
that I have successfully extended in the garden.  Here's Saliou Ndiaye's
onion, tomato, and lettuce beds. 

More inter-cropped beds, not many people eat the lettuce we grow so many of them have bolted.

Not all the lettuce bolts though, here's my host mom preparing a head to sell at the local market.

Zai holes with 'baby' hibiscus. 

Moringa leaves (you may remember moringa the miracle tree from my moringa tour post from December).

Cashew trees are starting to fruit.

Flowering and young fruit 'n nut.

A mature fruit 'n nut.

My backyard, don't mind my 30 foot tall moringa tree.  In all honest, I am proud
of all the trees I've been able to grow this past year.  Last year, my backyard
was bare and in another year there will actually be SHADE!

Papayas!  My host brother peeling and cutting up a papaya from our family's trees. 

The newest addition to my host family, a baby donkey!

More attempts at attaching bulky, unwieldy packages to Peace Corps bikes.  

Mangos have arrived!  

I am now a mango cutting expert!

I hosted two American students studying abroad in Dakar for a semester.  They had a week of pulling water, banal Wolof greetings, and helping me with work projects.

Painting a mural of the Senegalese map with my visiting study abroad students. 

Fallow fields from the rainy season.  Above: a fallow peanut field.  Below: a fallow
millet field.  Notice the stark difference between the amount of crop cover
there is between the two.  The peanut field will suffer far more during the windy
hot season, with the top soil blowing away.  Peanut production is subsidized by the
Senegalese government, my job is to encourage growing cereals (i.e. millet, sorghum)
which are better for the Earth and the population actually consumes.   

It was lovely while it lasted, but unfortunately the sun has set on my final cold season in Mboure. 

Camp Koumbidia Calls!

As anyone who talked to me in the past year knows, my favorite experience of my Peace Corps service was last year's Kaolack Girl's Empowerment Camp.  I was so inspired by the excitement shown by the Senegalese girls and Peace Corps Volunteers who attended that  I decided to branch off the idea and start another youth camp at the high school near my village. 

Fatou, Umou, Nafy, and Safiatou, the girls I brought to the Kaolack Girls Camp, approached me and asked if we could do a similar camp in their community.They wanted to share the knowledge, support system, and enthusiasm for their futures with their peers- and they wanted to see if I could make that happen.  Seven months later, my co-director Erica and I have coordinated with the school, students, Peace Corps, and Senegalese National Board of Education to create the Koumbidia Youth Leadership and Empowerment Camp, or 'Kamp Koumbidia.'  

Starting a program like this from scratch has been both an exhausting and confidence-building experience.  Fortunately, one of my neighboring Peace Corps Volunteers, Erica (another MSU Spartan, Go Green!), is equally passionate about youth and gender empowerment and has been a driving force in making this happen.  We hope that the project continues after this year and Peace Corps Volunteers near Koumbidia will be able to hold future annual 'Kamp Koumbidias.' 

Koumbidia is home to a motivated group of students who already have organized several student groups within their school.  Many of them look forward to continuing their education but too often drop out to help on the farm, are brought out of school due to early marriages, or are obligated to get jobs to help support their families.  The importance of education is slowly gaining ground, but many families do not fully value education, limiting their children's career options.   

The camp will be three days packed with discussions and games about health, the environment, gender, and the students' future.  Local experts will explain how these topics can be applied to their community through youth leadership.  Students will learn about career opportunities from a local career panel.  Volunteers will lead groups of the students in daily volutneerism activities within the community.  The final evening, we'll host a movie, inviting the entire community to recognize the 40 Kamp Koumbidia participants and hold a discussion about the role of youth in the community. 

The camp is just over a month away and we are looking for donations.  

• $25 will pay for the cost of one student's supplies and lunch
• $40 will pay for the cost of one of our local expert's travel and expenses so they can expose the students to career and networking opportunities

We are eager to quickly meet our donation requirement and deeply appreciate your donation!

https://beta.peacecorps.gov/…/pr…/youth-leadership-camp1310/

P.S.  I'm pretty excited to see Fatou, Umou, Nafy, and Safiatou teach next month!