Summa time and the living... well "it's not easy in The Gambia"

The rainy season is here finally, tho that doesn't mean it's raining hard or everyday. It just means the rain is around, here and there, and the relentless brown and orange is being overtaken by green. Actually the rains are late... usually by early July they have set it regularly and heavily. Still, up-country (east Gambia) looks "like a park" now, covered in grass and even the north bank has gotten enough for the crops to germinate.

So... how are my days flled these days? I often go to near-by Kerewam to work the awesome Department of Forestry guys there... they were my main partners in working on the All School Tree Nursery Competition in the north bank. The competition was not a huge success this year, due to some hang ups at the national level but several school did create great tree nurseries and are planning on outplanting soon. The schools are closing now for the summer but will keep an eye on their trees and outplant as soon as the rains are steady. Now we start planning for next year's competition!

Jamagen and two other villages within 2k are participating in a forestry department initiative to create wood lots... the "PWAMP" project. This keeps the women of Jamagen busy preparing the land and tending their little tree nursery- every Sunday is a work day! I have started to bring a bucket of water with a packet of "jumpkin," a powdered drink mix they sell here at the little bitiks because otherwise they don't drink. Several hours of work in the hot morning sun and they don't drink! But the work days are effective... and halarious. It's a bunch of women with their tools, babies strapped to their backs, arguing, gossiping, cracking up, throwing things, stealing babies, and yeah, working a little too- so fun for me!

The forestry department has just delivered their promised chain link fence to the PWAMP villages- my village, Jamagen and two others near by that I monitor. Now the fence goes up and we outplant our trees from nursery to wood lot! Our wee and humble wood lot contains mango, cashew, some nitrogen-fixing "green-manure" and firewood species and a bush fruit tree called mandinka cola. And our coveted beds of sisal, the wonder-species for live fencing. It looks like agave and grows to be about 4 feet high- even the goats don't brave the huge spikes. We are wondering now if some sort of tequila can be brewed from it... that might be my next project. (: Have I mentioned that I made a successful cashew-fruit liquor? I just added sugar and yeast and let it sit, and it was so good!

Anyway, the forestry dept. will be bringing up more seedlings as well. Next year I hope we can expand our tree nursery in Jamagen and start tree nurseries in the other near-by villages.

There are other small projects I'm working on too I suppose... trying to get some "alley cropping" going in the fields around Jamagen. Basically, when the soil is degraded like it is here, you can add fertilizer (which is expensive) or you can plant trees that act as green fertilizer. This is not a common practice here, it's a new idea but the women and a few men farmers are patronizing me and allowing me to plant a fast-growing pea tree in their fields and gardens. I can't wait to see how it works out... if it sticks, it will be a good source of protein for the village and maybe we can expand it's use for green manure.

OK, that's about it for work. This week in Kombo has been ridiculously fun... Jul-Brew, the one and only Gambian beer, threw us an all-you-can-drink party on July 4! It was a good time... a hundred of us volunteers throwing back Jul-brew with lime, dancing to the blaring i-pod and speaker set up... all in the out-door worker break area at the jul-brew factory! A few days later, our awesome APCD threw us a laid back dinner BBQ at his house. His beautiful tropical backyard held all the volunteers who cared to pitch 75 dalasi (3 bucks) and served up delicious pastas in huge metal bowls, lentil burgers on the grill. His new toddler and 3 dogs played underfoot and we all played like we were at an American BBQ. Our new country director, who flew in that day, showed up to meet us all and the party was full of lively how-to-make-a-gambiatopia chatter...good times, so different than being at site!

Beach and good food filled the rest of our days, along with some mandatory PCV meetings discussing work stuff, problems and successes, ect. Kombo is nice but I'm ready to head back now... I miss the Woolof! Oh, and we got another language test- I got advanced low! (There's beginner low, middle, high then intermediate l,m,h then advanced l,m,h) I can't beieve I can actually hack my way through conversations now... it seemed so hopeless when I first got to village. (:

Miss you all and am hoping all of us get rain soon soon. Jamma ag nop! Peace and love