Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Sorry, it has been awhile

Well so when i came to Senegal, and more particularly to my village, we were in the midst of watermelon season. I must admit, i was only a passive eater of watermelon in the states, but i found a new appreciation to this juicy fruit once i was in the village. more than ever before in my life i have strong cravings for food. not just protein although i often do think about meat, but for fruit and for vegetables. something that is wholesome and i know is contributing to the health of my body. I spend most of my day consuming vast quantities of sugars and carbohydrates. well so we have entered a new phase of life in the village, and in Senegal as a whole. Mangoes. Have you ever had a ripe mango the size of your two fists together? Its incredible. I can buy ten of them for roughly 2 dollars, and save the seeds for planting. Its a two for one deal. Eat the fruit and plant a tree. Such a basic concept for thousands of years and yet i had never done it until i came to this country. Have you? So now, every couple days i ride 5k or go to kaolack, buy a sack load of mangoes and distribute them to my family. Everyone wins. Which really does bring us to the more important topic of this entry... work.
Hey, i have finally started. Thought the time would never come. Just over a week ago i began a tree garden of about 200 trees. I am planting mostly fruit bearing trees or trees that can be used for food. Cashew, mango, and papaya bear fruit while the never-die tree's leaves are used for cooking and pack a considerable amount of vitamins. Lastly i planted flamboyant trees because, well, they're pretty. And pretty is good. I know 200 really isn't too many trees and that inchallah (God willing) half of them will survive into next year but i must accept the fact most will die or not germinate. The UN would be flabbergasted at the seedling mortality rate amongst trees in my village. It's not so much that we don't have enough water, we do, it is that my region of Senegal is being plagued by giant grasshoppers that eat everything in sight. A farmer friend of mine planted 160 mango trees last year, and as of yesterday, maybe 5 were still alive. He has other issues that contribute to this problem but it is due mostly to the grasshopper infestation. But along with my trees I have also handed out another 150 tree sacks to three villagers who are planning on planting 50 mangoes a piece. Inchallah they will plant them and the trees will survive into next year. But it takes 5 years for mangoes to bear fruit, and getting to the three year mark, in which they have a good chance of survival if they reach sort of like a new restaurant, is always a challenge.
As for my real work, the trees are but a side project, I will begin farming in the next couple weeks as the rains should start arriving in less than a month. Could not come soon enough. The heat is just building up, like a pressure cooker waiting to be released. I don't think it will necessarily cool down once the rains come but it will certainly feel good. Yup, so i am farmer Brad. Give me some flannel, a john deere trucking hat and a single piece of hay to stick between my teeth because i am from Indiana. But fortunately I have learned that i am not expected to do much farming, just a small demo plot showing the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and another variable against doing nothing for the crops. Not so sure how i feel about using pesticides on my crops, essentially promoting their use, but i will work that problem out. If the villagers insist... i do not know how i am to argue. it is difficult to explain run-off pollution and the destruction of the soil of long term usage. Not to mention the cost of buying pesticides for entire fields. Ehh... i shall see. it will work itself out. maybe i can convince them for me to do a demo plot about using organic fertilizers. But am i just pushing my values onto them? lastly and most importantly, they want my improved seeds from Peace Corps. Which is why i am in town today, to pick up the seeds (millet, corn, sorghum, beans) so we can have a village wide meeting on Sunday (my first meeting of such a large group) to discuss who gets what seeds. It is an exciting time, relatively speaking. Just if it wasn't so hot. Thank you