Travels with Tavish

Here are some more pictures from around the village! A bamboo fence that my host dad made. He often works on these fences in the afternoon after cutting bamboo from the forest in the morning A bamboo tree protector that my dad made for the upcoming rainy season A semi-protective live fence of thorny species that surrounds last year's community pepiniere Last year's community pepiniere Last year's community pepiniere Last year's community pepiniere (shade structure fell down and will need to be rebuilt) Live Jatropha fence next to a dead fence in my host dad's cotton field. These trees are growing nicely but more need to be planted in between the existing trees before the dead fence can be taken away One of my host dad's cashew trees Mango tree outside my compound Young cashew tree growing inside a fence Some young cashew trees (inside the circular fences visible) Fence next to a cotton fi...

During the two weeks after Christmas, I spent a lot of my time in the village working in my backyard and getting to know some more about the agriculture and agroforestry practices in my village. My back yard work commenced with clearing out the remains of the second hut that used to exist in my backyard. The first volunteers at my site were a married couple, so they had two huts. During the last rainy season, the second hut fell down. When I went to see my site in October, one wall had fallen down. When I installed in December my family had knocked the rest of it down for me. It was then simply a big pile of rubble that had to be cleared before anything else could be done in the space. I spent the first few weeks at my site hoping that the job would do itself, but unfortunately that didn't happen. It took two days of solid work to clear the pile from my backyard into my family's garden area where a pit with some rubble already existed. I worked from about 9-11am and 4-6pm ...

I am keeping track of the books I read in Senegal. When I am at my site I usually have a lot of time to read; during the last couple months I have been flying through books at a faster rate than ever before in my life. Here is the list of what I have read so far: If you are looking for recommendations, I would start with Things Fall Apart. It is a short book about and African village in Nigeria. It was not an uplifting book, but felt very relevant considering my current location. Many of the themes and traditions in the book are things that I have heard about or experienced in Senegal already. Another heartbreaking book that is well worth reading is The Underground Railroad. It is a novel that imagines the Underground Railroad as an actual system of underground train tunnels that takes slaves north into freedom. Highly, highly recommended. If you are a baseball fan, Moneyball is a must. The Baseball Codes is a great one to have around and read a chapter or two every n...

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I left my site early in the morning on Christmas Eve to come into the Kedougou Transit House and spend the holiday with other volunteers from the region. My village is halfway between Kedougou and another large town about 80km away. Drivers generally leave the town to go to Kedougou with a full car, so I had to call and reserve a spot the night before. Unfortunately the driver does not speak Jaxanke, so my neighbor called on my behalf and spoke to him in Pulaar. Sure enough, at 7:15am on Christmas Eve his sept place came hurtling down the hill that leads to my village. The headlights flashed and I crossed the street to the approaching car from my friend's house where I was sitting in his yard waiting for the car. During the ride, a woman called me "patron," or "rich guy" for paying the 3000 CFA pass with a 5000 CFA bill. To me this seemed a reasonable bill to use. The one hour ride went quickly as my anticipation ...

At my site, I eat lunch and dinner with my family. I have been cooking breakfast for myself in my backyard--usually millet with peanut butter and honey. The food that my family cooks is pretty similar every day. For breakfast, they eat a sweet-and-sour porridge made with rice flour called mono. In other parts of Senegal, this same dish is made with millet instead of rice and has yogurt poured over the top of the porridge. I ate the millet and yogurt version of mono a few times at my host family's house in Mbour. Lunch and dinner are pretty similar. We rotate through a few different meals in a pattern that I have not yet figured out. The base of the meal is either white rice (75% of the time) or corn (the other 25%). There is then a sauce that goes on top of the grain: either peanut sauce called "mafe" or leaf sauce. The peanut sauce is a very thin tan color. It is usually pretty salty; I think the ingredients are just peanuts salt, and spices. Occasionally the mafe h...

Happy New Year! Here are some pictures from my site! My family's compound. Cashew tree in the foreground My family's compound. On the right is the shade structure where we sit when we spend time in the yard My family's compound. My hut is in the foreground on the right My hut Inside my hut I put my mosquito net up very poorly and have not fixed it yet Inside my hut My backyard. Small tree nursery on the left in the black tree sacks. Paintings done by previous volunteers at my site My bathroom Rice fields Getting ready to beat rice in the fields Beating rice (Some technical difficulties with the video upload. If it doesn't work, I'll try again later) Beating rice in a group. The rhythm of this practice was mesmerizing. I helped a little doing an initial beating of the rice bails before they were tossed into this group beating. Making a fence around the cut rice so that the cows ...

I have completed my first three weeks at my site in the region of Kedougou! It feels good to have reached this milestone (albeit, an arbitrary one) and made it to Christmas. After swearing-in, I rode down to Kedougou in a roomy sept place (old 8-seat Peugeot station wagon) with two other volunteers. Only three were in each car because we were bringing with us all of our luggage and bikes; the roofs of the cars were full. We spent two days in Kedougou with a host of current volunteers who accompanied us to the market. There we bought buckets to store food, benoirs to do laundry, soap, bleach, brooms, food, stoves, trunks, mattresses, and everything else needed to furnish our huts. The two days went by quickly, and soon enough it was December 4th, install day. I waited nervously at the transit house as the sept places arrived one by one to take us to our sites. I was the second-to-last to leave of the eight who installed on the 4th. The same current volunteer who visited my site with me...