Day 73: Ronald’s parting, working without him

This morning was once again a late morning. By the time I got to Kristin’s to see what was on the schedule for the day, it was around 10:30. Fatou, who lives with Kristin, then informed us that there was a meeting at 11, for all of the staff and students.

At the meeting, we learned that Ronald (our agriculture group facilitator/leader/translator) had left for Dakar to attend the funeral of his uncle. This was sad news, but we were told that he would hopefully return on Tuesday (with Marian and the rest of the Senegalese students.)

Luckily, we had scheduled stuff to do until Saturday, so we weren’t totally (screwed). However, without a translator, Kristin and I worried if we would be able to communicate with the villagers (considering they speak Wolof…)

Anyway, the rest of the meeting included some brief summaries of what each group had accomplished (and planned to) so far. Also in the meeting was a discussion about some issues in the group…

After the meeting and lunch (at Fatou’s), Kristin and I went out to the community garden once again with Guedal, Maodo, and Ndery. This time Allison came with us, but we had no Ronald. Once we got to the field, we surveyed the land. Through broken French, the villagers were able to tell us that there wasn’t really much to do until Ronald came back, as they didn’t want to do the wrong thing. They said the only thing that could be cone was to prepare a few planting beds in an area adjacent to the community garden…so we helped them do that.

After going back home, we started to draw up a plan showing how we could irrigate the entire field with the limited resources that we had. Here’s a basic review of how drip irrigation works (it’s really simple): You have an elevated tank of water, with tubes running down to the ground and along lines of crops. Because of small holes in the tubes at spaced intervals, the water from the tank drips onto each plant. The advantages of this system include more efficient water usage, more accurate placement of water, and the fact that the system requires no energy source.

So, in a nutshell, our job is to: build wooden supports to elevate the water tanks, assemble the tubing, and strategically place tubes to irrigate the whole field. Also while we’re here, we plan to teach the villagers how to make better compost piles and how to make their soil better for growing.

Dinner was potatoes and goat meat served over oil. My family had looked for bread but couldn’t find any… It’s hard to understand how the villagers use SO much oil in their cooking…it’s ridiculous.