February Pictures

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Here are some pictures from my site from the month of February:


My toxoma pruning a cashew tree that he planted a few years ago

After pruning and cleaning weeds from around the tree

The largest of my toxoma's cashew trees

My friend Bamansa took me to the Ingeli waterfall about an hour away (by bike) from my luumo town. It's not flowing at this time of year--just trickling down the rock

Bamansa walking up the rocks to the falls. As you can see, he is dressed in full winter garb for the start-of-hot-season weather

Bamansa cutting bamboo at the falls

Bamansa in the bamboo forest near the base of the falls

The pool beneath Ingeli. I am definitely going to come back during the rainy season when the water is really flowing

At the waterfall


The Ingeli waterfall (the bare cliff in the center of the photo) from up on a cliff nearby

The beautiful view from the cliff above the waterfall

A young palm tree out in the bush

Bamansa cutting down the young palm tree. He said "I want to show you something" then commenced cutting down the tree

Cutting off the fronds with an axe one by one. This was quite a lot of work. I offered to help, but I was very slow and Bamansa quickly took the axe back from me

The prize: heart of palm. It was delicious and there was a decent amount of it, but it was sad to watch the whole tree get cut down for a little bit of food. Again, it tasted really good. We ate a lot of it back at Bamansa's house and then he gave me some to take back to my family


A shelf I made with bamboo that I cut in the bush and baling wire. Also some jaxatu (bitter tomato) from my mom's garden 

A small eggplant in my hot mom's garden

Who knew eggplant flowers were so pretty?

Women's gardens by the river near my village. Mostly jaxatu and onions

An incredibly steep, sandy path down to the river from the garden. Women haul endless buckets of water up this path to water their vegetables. I don't think I could make it up the sandy path with a bucket of water on my head

Another view of the steep water-hauling path

Another equally difficult water hauling path

Jaxatu garden

One of my friends in village posing for a picture while watering her jaxatu

Amadou's mom, Sira, in her giant garden


Cabbage in Sira's garden

The time has arrived to move my bed outside once again

My new sewing technique: wear a latex glove so that the sweat from my hand does not come in contact with the needle. If you have never sewn in a hot place, you might not know (as I did not before I came to Senegal) that a sweaty needle quickly becomes almost impossible to slide through the fabric. Thus, the glove innovation

The papaya tree that sprouted on its own in my backyard is getting destroyed by grasshoppers

A really cute small frog "hiding" in the papaya tree. Also an evil grasshopper eating a leaf

Some firewood I cut for my host mom (the bundle tied up on the ground)

Collards! They look a lot bigger in this picture than they actually were, but I got enough to make a small salad to share with my family

After working to clear the brush at my village's new soccer field

My beard...stay tuned for next month's pictures

Corn hole! My friend Eric and I spent many hours sewing new bags and fixing up the old boards that live at the Kedougou house

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