Project Update: Dental Bamtaare Tooro Demo Garden

I am in the process of starting a demonstration garden at the office space of my counterpart Kadiata Ba. She is the president of an organization called Dental Bamtaare Tooro which if Pulaar for Group for the Development of the Tooro (a region of northern Senegal where Taredji is located). Dental’s activities focus on the development of the Toroor region by focusing on women. They primarily operate a milk processing business (see more types of milk) but also host trainings in their 29 partner villages on Pulaar alphabetization, democracy and citizenship, animal husbandry, and now agriculture. With the help of Peace Corps/Senegal, we are building a garden to train women in the 29 villages Dental works with to do small-scale gardening.

So far, I have written a grant to get tools and fencing for the space, designed the garden space, and am now waiting on the money to arrive. In the mean time, I have started a tree nursery at my family’s compound. My host dad Ousman Ba also works at Dental and has a small section of fencing around a TV satellite for a TV that is broken in a house that has electricity that can only support one small light bulb. Because the trees have a very limited time frame for being seeded before the rainy season starts, it was important that we did not wait for the fencing to arrive before getting the trees going.

A majority of the trees will be used for a live fence: a fence made out of trees that is more reliable than “dead” fencing and cheaper if more labor-intensive. With the help of Peace Corps and Dental, I have chosen three different thorny species that can be pruned into a thorny hedge to keep out animals and children (both of which are my worst enemies when it comes to gardening).

In addition to the live fence, I am also including some small fruit trees and nitrogen-fixing trees for alley cropping, a practice of integrating trees between rows of planting in order to act as windbreaks, diversify your space, provide additional income, and/or improve the soil. For fruit trees, we are using papaya, guava, and pomegranate because they don’t take up very much space and start producing fruit quickly.

In total, we have about 300 trees that will be used for a 59x26 meter space. I have just seeded the nursery and will keep you updated on the progress of the garden. 

Project Update: Podor Hospital Garden

One of the projects I am working on is a hospital garden in the city of Podor (see more pictures of Podor), which is about 20 to 25 km from Taredji depending on who you ask and is right on the Senegal-Mauritania border. Podor is a much more metropolitan city than Taredji; there are fancy hotels, internet cafes, a small amount of mainly French tourists, paved sidewalks, restaurants and bars, an old colonial fort, and a big hospital. (Side note: If you ever want to check out the weather in my area, Podor is the only place nearby that you can find online)

The garden was started by another volunteer who used to live in Podor and has now completed his service. There are two full-time gardeners who run the project; I am only there for technical assistance and come out to the garden once a week to check things out. The vegetables that are grown here supplement the hospital food bill that is quite large due to the number of overnight patients. The garden is watered by hand from a water basin that is filled everyday by a motor pump from the river.

Right now is the end of the cold, dry season, which is the prime veggie-growing season in Senegal. By the end of March or so, we should have carrots, eggplant, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, bitter tomato, melons, and squash. I have been trying to work with the gardeners on better spacing techniques, the importance of weeding, composting, and planning for hot season gardening. Hot season gardening is something that not many people in my area do in my area because temperatures can get up to 140°F, but we are going to try to find crops that can withstand the heat including heat-tolerant lettuce varieties, tomatoes, hot pepper, and radish. We are also trying to incorporate more fruit trees into the space like papaya, guava, and pomegranate.

In the more distant future, we plan on potentially having some training sessions at the garden for interested gardeners in Podor as well as for some young men from the military compound nearby that want to start a garden of their own. Besides that, I hang around the garden, help out with weeding or other garden activities, play with our garden cat, and watch the comings and goings of the hospital. 

Bitter Tomato 

Some shabby looking moringa trees. The leaves are packed full of vitamins.   

Volunteer Visit

Sorry this post is a long one, but there was so much to say about my not one, but three sites I will be working at! If you don’t care to read the details of the cities I’ll be working in and the projects, you can feel free to skip down to the highlights of the trip.

This past week I spent visiting my future permanent site of Taredji. My and my fellow stagemates Raphael and Erin who are also going to the North stayed with a group of volunteers who live in Ndioum, a pretty large town on the Rue National (the main highway throughout Senegal).  We got to see our sites and learn more about the communities we will be living in and the projects we might be working on. My situation is unique among volunteers—I will be living and working in Taredji as well as overseeing projects in Ndioum and Podor.

Let’s start with Podor. Podor is a city of around 12,000 people right on the boarder between Senegal and Mauritania (the two countries are divided by the Senegal River). It is a very historic city and was once occupied by the French and even has a 17^th century fort. The city also gets a small amount of tourism (I saw one French family on vacation with their two children while I was there). A volunteer who is COSing (Close of Service) used to be located in Podor but had to move to Ndioum during the middle of his service. He made a beautiful hospital garden in Podor, which is now mildly run down. I will be taking over this garden and hopefully reinvigorating my work partners there to keep with the project.

                                                                        The fort in Podor

                                                                    Podor Hospital Garden

 Looking out from Podor over the Senegal River and Mauritania 

Lounging on the side of the Senegal River 

Next stop, Ndioum! Ndioum is a regional capital for Peace Corps Senegal. This means there is a regional house there where volunteers in the North can stay from time to time. Also, three volunteers who used to live in Podor now live in Ndioum. It is a fairly large city but somewhat smaller and less organized than Podor. Ndioum is about 40 kilometers from Podor and on the Rue National. Ndioum had a very nice hospital that is currently the largest hospital in the Department of Podor (soon to be usurped by Pate). The director of the hospital is very excited to start a hospital garden there, and the project has already been approved by Peace Corps. Once I install at my permanent site, I will assist the other volunteers in Ndioum to build the garden which will help to cut food costs for patients.

Finally Taredji, where I will actually be living (inshallah, because a home for me there is yet to be found).Taredji is a road town at the junction of the Rue National and the road that takes you to Podor, thus it receives heavy traffic and essentially grew out of its prime location.  Taredji has about 5,000-6,000 people split into two areas of the town. There are two potential projects I am really excited for in Taredji. One is a school garden at a primary school. The director of the primary school is so excited about the garden that he has already fenced off an area at the school. Right across the street is a local CBO that does a wide variety of things including women’s rights, democracy, and trainings of various kinds that I am still learning about. Here, the organization wants to set up a demonstration site to teach farming techniques and best practices to the surrounding villages that the organization already has connections with. This is essentially what my whole job is as an Urban Ag volunteer, so I am really excited to have such a motivated organization to work with. 

Future site of the demo garden in Taredji

Highlights of VV

•       Lounging by the Senegal River and looking out to Mauritania
•     Almost driving into the Senegal River on the way back to the training center
•     Eating hamburgers and cake at the regional house
•     Meeting my awesome counterpart at the CBO who wants to name me after her
•     Climbing to the roof of the old French fort in Podor
•     Sleeping on the roof every night in Ndioum
•     Being woken up to the terrified crying of a baby goat stuck in the yard
•     Being woken up by the sounds of the mosque and Justin Beiber, simultaneously 

Pictures!

Here are some pictures of my first month in Senegal! Sorry some are videos, and I don't know if they will actually work out. My family started messing with the settings on my camera. 

My family in Ngheeho (my training city) 

 The Disco Hut at the Training Center

 My room in Ngheeho 

 More pictures of my family. 

My sister Kaljeta and a neighbor. 

 My mom Aysata

         

 My mom Adjumata and my sister Aysata. 

Two of my sisters and my little brother Hadji (he is quite a trouble maker)

One of my sisters and my youngest brother Seedou. He is still somewhat scared of me. 

Me making a weird face and having my sister laugh at me. 

My sisters Kaljeta and Fatimata.  

 My street after a big rain. The water went up to my knees, and I had to swim home. 

My garden in Ngheeho