March Pictures

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Here are some more pictures from my site!



The tall palm-like tree in the middle ground is bankala, the plant which almost all furniture is made of in many Kedougou villages. It is light, strong, easy to split, and relatively straight; similar somewhat to bamboo in its fitness for construction



Attempt 1 (left) and 2 (right) at setting up a pull-up bar in my backyard. The bamboo on the left is suspended by wire; the trees are not strong enough to support this load and the wire sometimes slips. The bamboo on the right is just wedged into the trees--the problem here is that the bar sits at approximately eye-level. Better iterations hopefully coming soon.

Putting grass on the roof of a new hut in my village. Note the bamboo ladder

How this eventually made its way from Qatar to Senegal I have no idea.

I have no idea what I did to make my feet so dirty this day

Outdoor bed set up in my backyard. Since mid-March it has been far too hot to sleep in my hut

Digging up a termite mound for mud stove construction

Pounded clay (termite mound) and manure for mud stove construction

Mud stove in my host mom's backyard. The stove must dry for a week before it can be used

Mud stove in use to boil jaxatu (bitter tomato)

A neighbor (not my host mom) who wanted to pose by the stove when I started taking pictures

Ban (palm-like tree) leaves for the community pepiniere shade structure

Cutting down wood for fence posts for the community pepiniere

Sand I gathered from the river to fill tree sacks

Community pepiniere--fence is fixed and shade structure is built. Now all that is needed is a gate

The near side of the pepiniere is protected with live fencing planted about 3 years ago by my anciens
Rice from the village being loaded onto a big truck for sale in the region of Kolda

Bamboo growing by a now-dry river

View from the top of a hill that I found while out on a run

Another view from the hill

Out for a run

My toxoma (namesake) Mamadou fixing my roof

Adding more grass to the top of the roof

Rolling out the grass

Roof is done! Hopefully it doesn't leak


Painted my room! I'll eventually get around to doing a second coat

Tried to have my host mom braid my hair, but it is not long enough yet

The lizards (especially the babies) are much easier to see on the walls after painting

The first three arrivals from our work zone bike trip into Kedougou. The other two had some bike trouble and made it a couple hours later.



Comments

  1. Charron AndrewsApril 21, 2019 at 5:02 AM


    Thansk for this recent batch of photos. I’m wondering if your house with the new DIY indoor paint job has a window other than the one in the front door. Also I wonder what the village people put inside the pepiniere? A garden? Chickens?


    Sincerely,

    Bill

    ReplyDelete

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