Cold Soda, Cold Pop

I guess it hasn't been too long since my last blog entry, but a lot has happened! I just returned from a trip to Senegal for the West African International Softball Tournament (WAIST), followed by a quick trip to the Gambia. Peace Corps and Expat teams from all over West Africa got together for a weekend of softball and parties. Unfortunately my team didn't make it to the semifinals, but we went 2-1-1 in the round robin games. Our team, the Cowboys, certainly didn't receive any help from my "awesome" softball skills! Here is a picture of the Seattle Kawboys...Holly, Gloria, me and Mike (Kaw means family in Bambara ):

Here is part of Kita Kaw after an awesome game of kickball, unfortunately won on the basis of rock-paper-scissors by the Refugees (a team made up of volunteers that worked in Guinea and Mauritania up until the programs in those countries were shut down), Ryan, Jess, Joelle and I:

Me, Joelle and Jess enjoying a view of the ocean on N'Gor island in Dakar, Senegal.


I traveled to the Gambia with three friends after the softball tournament. Highlights of the trip to the Gambia were swimming in the ocean, watching the catch of the day come in on pirogues (canoe-like boats that we were told travel from 10-20 km into the ocean to go fishing), going to a nature reserve filled with monkeys, having to pull a cable to bring a boat across the Gambia river, and the hospitality of all of the Gambia volunteers, especially our host Kris. Here's some pictures from the trip, first the small port where we watched all of the fish come in:


Taxis were being loaded with fish to go to the local restaurants. I got to eat lots of delicious fish in both Dakar and the Gambia.


After watching the fish come in, we had a small "senior photo shoot." This was my winning photo...:


Here's Ester and Jess, both of whom are also from Washington:


Matt, Jess, me and Owen on the beach. The four of us traveled together from Dakar, through the Gambia and back home to Mali. We were so happy to be back in Mali when we crossed the border!


The Gambia volunteers held a toga party for one of their volunteers who is leaving early to start medical school. All of the Mali volunteers who were in town decided to join in.


I'm on my way back to site in just a few hours where I will go to my homologue's son's engagement party, it should be a lot of fun. I spent January and February at site continuuing to learn Bambara, making new friends, and working on my garden. Sometimes I feel like my garden has been a series of failures, and there are two obvious problems with this. 1. Will I get any food for my hard work? and 2. How will the women in the garden ever trust my gardening advice? I'll blame most of my problems on the huge envrironmental differences between Mali and the places I have gardened in the past - Ecuador and Washington. Also, I haven't grown most of these vegetables before, so a lot of what I am doing is based on trial and error. Next year, ni alla sonna, I'll have an awesome garden.

So, what problems have I had? Worms and grasshoppers have become my arch-enemies. Grasshoppers have single handedly destroyed my carrot (x 2), cabbage, beet (x2), and salad (x2) peppinieres. I might have been able to halt the destruction had I caught it earlier, but by the time I had discovered the problem and brewed up some strong natural pest deterent (Neem tree, garlic, hot pepper, onion, and soap), the seedlings were all but gone. Sad times.

Worms are a more recent problem. I have about 90 tomato plants with a lot of fruit on them, which is very exciting. But, I have just discovered that worms have enterred most of my tomatoes...I am pretty sure they are some sort of moth larvae. Once they enter the tomatoes there is not much I can do, so I searched for the little green worms on the plants before I left for Senegal, and I couldn't find a single one. Shoot.

Yesterday, while visiting my site with my boss, Yacouba, we discovered that worms of a different kind have destroyed my green beans. When I left for Senegal, my green beans were robust and just starting to fruit. Yesterday, I was hoping to show my Yacouba my beautiful green beans. When we arrived at my garden, they were yellow, rotting skeletons of plants. Yacouba pulled up the plants and we discovered that worms had enterred the roots of the beans and destroyed them! Oh jeez. So much for all the delicous green beans I was hoping to harvest.

I've also had some transplanting issues, and discovered that the lettuce I was hoping to harvest right after my trip to Senegal has gone to seed during the two weeks I was gone. Now that I don't have any trips planned, hopefully I can do some good recovery work in my garden at get some produce from it. We're on the brink of hot season, and I am hoping the water in the wells will last for awhile longer. It was a really good year for rain, so I might be in luck. Here's some pictures from the garden before I left for Senegal:



Yum, lettuce, except the three largest heads went to seed in the last two weeks, which makes them very bitter and not nice to eat.


Here is one of my four beds of tomato plants. Can't wait to harvest these!

This was the first tomato fruit to appear. It has since been destroyed by worms.


Here are some more lettuce beds, they haven't gone to seed yet, so I should be able to eat and give away lots of this lettuce!


Onions, which appear to be growing well. Most of the women in the garden grow onions exclusively, and they all seem to be expert onion growers.


Lastly, here are some pictures from around my village. I should let my vegetarian friends know that there is an offensive picture coming up. First, this is my friend Oumou peeling woso (sweet potato). She will be giving birth sometime in the next 1 1/2 months.


Here is Gundo, Sayon and their kids. Gundo is one of my host moms and makes me lunch every day.

The day before I left for Senegal, there was a big party to celebrate the baptism of a baby named Mariama. As part of the celebration, two goats were killed. In the afternoon, I was chatting with some friends, and all of a sudden my host brothers started attacking each other playfully with the heads and legs of the goats. Shortly after this picture, the heads were cooked and eaten:

Take it easy until next time!