Travels with Tavish

Here are some pictures from the Kedougou Youth Leadership Camp! Playing Fish Bowl, a charades game Teaching the tree nursery session Campers mixing manure and dirt to fill tree sacks Playing the human knot game My beard is now almost as long as my face Pancake judging; campers made pancakes together in groups of five during the cooking class Cooking the leftover batter into mini-pancakes Dancing after the cooking session Erosion activity; in groups, the campers added sticks and rocks to the dirt to try and lessen the amount of erosion when the "rain" came Erosion activity  Baking soda and vinegar volcano during science night Making slime during science night Juggling during science night Making giant bubbles during science night Basketball Basketball dribble-pass-shoot competition Gender day--campers dressed up as the opposite gender and did skits Campfire Dancing around the cam...

Here are some pictures from August: Field crops in my backyard as of August 1 (corn, peanuts, and beans) My mango graft is growing! It's the small one on the right of the larger branch. Picture from August 1 A flooded bridge about 1km toward Kedougou from my village that I pushed my bike through on my way to the city. The river was so high that it was difficult to tell where to step so that I would not step off the bridge into the river My backyard papaya tree is dying, something is eating it A wilted leaf Something (probably termites) ate the roots of my papaya tree, thus its quick demise A friend in my luumo town weaving a fishing net Note the sandals! Cashew tree in my compound The biggest cashew tree in my compound; also the biggest cashew tree in my village Moringa intensive bed in the community pepiniere My friend Eric and I seeding some papaya seeds in leftover tree sacks. He and his wife Alyssa came to visit m...

Every year the volunteers from the region of Kedougou run a 2-week youth camp for college (middle-school) students from villages around the region. I worked the first week of camp and am headed back to my village soon while the second week of camp is in progress. 25 kids from ten different locations come to the city of Kedougou to spend a couple weeks learning, playing, and making new friends. We partner with a Senegalese organization called CDEPS (I don't know what the acronym stands for, but the organization works with education and youth development) for camp. CDEPS was in charge of the food, nurse, accompanying kids to the bathroom, and some other camper-related logistics. The camp takes places at a school on the grounds of a Catholic Mission about a 10-minute bike ride away from the Peace Corps house in Kedougou. The days at camp were long, but it was a blast! Every day the volunteers arrived at camp by 8am and stayed until 10pm. After the evening activity ended we then bik...