Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Home Love

What else but some cute african kids- most of them are of my siblings or favorite baby in village. 


Mariama Jallow- they call her MJ, after Michael Jackson. Her co-mother is my best friend in village- even though they speak fula i'm at their compound very often


Aramita, my little sister, she's a wild one. 

Bamusa, brother, he's grown so much in the past year. Measuring my length of time based on how much everyone has grown up. He loves to dance and his dance offs with Justin are one of my favorite things. 

Farfala, brother, he lives at the quaranic school in town so I don't see him often but when I do he has a very quite personality- hardly saying anything but just has this huge smile on his face. No smiles here though- it was 7pm and he was fasting- fasting breaks at 7:30. He is 15. 

Isatou, the baby, and Tia, the 3 year old are still with their mother in Kombo visiting relatives. I miss them and realize now how much they and their older silblings have impacted me and my service- on all day's, the good and the bad, they are my source of joy, they give me their smiles and ask me for magazines, and grant me some of their endless power to be happy in a place where their are so many reason to be sad.

Tiyo Fatty, the little shit, he thinks he is a model. The family adores him now and he answers to Bori's call. The whole village when greeting me will ask how tiyo is with a laugh. Because its so silly to name a cat. When people bother me about not giving them money or buying them road gifts after traveling, I respond with "well, you haven't bought tiyo any fish and he really likes fish." That gets them laughing and gives me a chance to turn the conversation away from the stereotype of me being white and automatically having money. He's growing on many of them- someday he will be more famous in the village then I am. (No worries mom- he's staying in Africa- Aramita told me she wants him as her cat.)



Ramadan Sunset in my backyard. I am the luckiest girl. 

Fencing of The Gambia

Sesame Seed pod fencing

Corn stalk fencing 

Then we have the thorn woven fencing 
The many wood cutting's fence- also serves as a clothes line. 

The Larger wood fencing (1 year old) so they added thorn branches and sesame seed pods.

The reed fencing with wire holdings 

The chain-link fencing


The Village now has a GARDEN!! Chain-link fencing with metal bars cemented into the ground. The well, a pulley system, is a work in progress as we have hit rainy season and Ramadan- no one wants to dig a well when they are fasting. I had left on vacation to Morocco (more on that later) and when I came back to village they had set up the metal posts- and were waiting on instruction on the chain-link. The garden is a little over a hectare large with 1 well, funded by a USAID West African food security grant. There is a 8 person garden committee and each gardener (so far 90 have registered) will pay money to register their beds- the money going towards a communal account to buy seeds, tools, and additional wells in the future. The hope is self-sustainability. There will also be small business practices, garden practices, and nutritional training sessions given to community members so they have the best tools in place to have the garden work for their nutritional and monetary needs.
The work is slow starting because the rains have come and everyone is busy with their fields. Although we have started planting trees- about 40 cashew trees on the perimeter. Later the village has plans for moringa trees as alley cropping and a banana tree quarter. With the grant money, tomato, sweet green pepper, hot pepper, butternut squash, eggplant, and cucumber seeds have been purchased- the women will learn how to save these seeds adding to the okra, onion, eggplant, pepper, and squash they already grow. Now we are just beginning but we have high hopes for the future! 

Monday, July 15, 2013

We will have honey soon soon!!

BeeCause came back to village and we built large hives. The men did great, they worked as teams and whipped out these hives. 





A little instruction by Beecause master BALLA! With some small boys helping out in the background. It was a multigenerational day!


With lots of smiles!


These are brave brave men, they are beekeeping and we all got stung, at night, in the dark..A really fun time!! Seriously though, it was a great night. 


The third day we held a training for women and men on how to make value added products for bee products, we made soap and lotion. Lots of activity and lots of excited ladies!

The Jallow Boys planted cashew seeds. Their bad ass men. 

Aimee surprises family with groundnut grinder!




"What is this weird (walmart) bag.... "
Bori looking apprehensive with onlookers of Aramita and Mariama


"Ahhahaha.....Isatou!! Aimee!! Oh, this is good so good, good, ohh I am so happy!! 
Thank you, Thank you!! May Allah bring you goodluck and safety."


"Hey, Isatou, look at me....this bubbly wrap is so much fun... I can even wear it as a head wrap! Oh, Aimee is so silly...bubbly wrap."


Baboo, otherwise known as DAD, built this fancy little stand THE NEXT DAY!! Which is unbelievable to me because i've been asking him to fix my roof for 2 months and only did he do it when the rains came into my house. They are really grateful for the grinder. 


Isn't this the sweetest little table you've ever seen! 


Gambian's main crop is groundnut, similar to peanuts. But to grind them up into peanut butter or crush them for cooking purposes requires either alot of manual labor with a mortar and pestle or this fancy little hand machine. Before this one we had only one in the village for 34 compounds. Quite the waiting line for lunch preparation. They charge each woman about 3 dalasi, about 2 cents, to grind the nuts. They take the profits and save some for machine repairs and use the rest to buy food, cloths, ect. They also use it to grind fish to make fish balls (Justin really like's fish balls.) 

Thank you Aimee