Jamagen at work
So... it's been awhile. After In Service Training last month, which was about a week of cool hands-on honey harvesting and tree grafting work, 'development' things in Jamagen have been moving fast. Well... fast relative to Jamagen's average speed. which, if you compare their style of dress, architecture, occupations and diets to that of their culture 400 years ago... well, it's not fast.

A while ago, I visited to main Department of Forestry in Banjul, to say hi and talk to them about a reforestation with native tree species project I wanted to start. I didn't get to finish my second sentence about the project idea, but their agenda for the meeting worked out for me too- they were looking for villages to participate in a wood lot project! Great I said, we've already started out tree nursery, the only problem is fencing. We can't afford barbed wire and after the rains end and animals are hungry again, the baby trees will be eaten or trampled. So we've started some live fencing species this year, and by next year they should...Great! they interrupt We'll GIVE you fencing, not just barbed wire but chain link! (Is that really neccessary?) And then we'll give you baby mangos, cashews, gmelinas (fast growing, used for timber)! Awesome.

Back in village, everyone is excited. Paradoxically, we have to CUT 400 fence poles before they give us the fence, which means trimming the branches off the few large trees dotting the fields. Sigh. Also, since they're giving us seedlings, enthusiasm for our nursery has trickled down a bit. But, not to look a gift horse in the mouth- the two-hectare wood lot will surely save a lot of Jamagen's pitiful "bush" from certain death by cooking fire. At the next meeting, it is decided that Sundays will be work days and the fence posts will be collected by everyone. Also, there's still motivation for planting our live fence because after a live fence grows in, the chain link can be moved to another project area or sold. Another idea is thrown out- we can plant corn inbetween the baby seedlings as a community crop! I wonder who will weed and harvest, and then who will help eat the corn? But I save my question for next time. (Family, remember that cartoon "who will help me sow my corn? no one. who will help me eat my corn? everyone! hahaha!) OK, pretty good.

Sunday comes and sure enough, all the men bring their axes and donkey carts, the women bring their hoes, and candy (?). The young men scoot up these huge trees with bare feet and hands, hacking off all branches except the main top branch. When the branches crack, I wince a little (yes, I want to hug the trees) but they hoot and laugh "AH! What is this?!" Others load the poles onto carts and take them to the fence site where the older men are digging post holes and packing dirt around the new posts. The women are clearing the land of what little greenery came back after the Great Bush Fire of Steph's 24th Birthday. They are also fighting over minties and who was late and has to pay the 5 delassi late fee. About half gets done, the rest saved for the next Sunday. Two other villages near by are also participating and I go once a week to check on them... their progress is about the same as Jamagen, sweet!

So, in the next 3 weeks or so before the rains set in, we will ideally have our fence and seedlings! In addition to the seedlings they give us, we'll plant our nursery seedlings at the end of the rains, and go ahead with our sisal-and-lime live fence idea.

In other work-related news, the Gambia-wide All-School Tree Nursery Competition, which was off to a rough start, is definitely underway. On June 4, I go on trek with a representative from the Dept. of Forestry and one from Ed. Dept to judge all the schools in the North Bank. It's taken several trips to the area offices in Kerewam, by me and Rachel, an ed. volunteer, but finally all is organized and ready. We'll judge the schools on how many tree seedlings have at least germinated, and how many varieties they have, as well as how many students participated. Then, in September we do another judging trek to see how well the tree seedlings were actually outplanted, then give prizes based on that. Good deal!

I have written a project idea proposal with the help of my Ag-Fo boss, Rod, on a small piolet project for reforestation with native trees in my district. The thing is, there are lots of government and NGO-sponsered wood lots, like the one Jamagen is doing, which promote monoculture lots of mangos and cashews. Ok, so bi-culture lots. And other fast-growing species, acaias and gmelina, are promoted but are their branches or even trunks are lopped often and never manage re-create a forest habitat. I'm hoping to address that... there's been some talk about travel agencies interested in "carbon offsetting"- they'd advertise their travel package as "green" and tourists would pay someone like me to facilitate a reforestation project that they could use to feel better about their travel. Trees during the rainy season can take in a ton of carbon I guess (literally a ton), which would theorectically offset the carbon put out by the flights. So, I'm looking- we'll see!