pics from top:

My sister Mariama

My brother Lasana eating a mango

Leigh and Myself on Ngor Island

Charley Leondra Leigh and Me checking out the delta

Hello friends,

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying a summer full of sun, relaxation, and little stress. That both is and is not the case for yours truly here in Khossanto. The rainy season has come fully if on the late side this year meaning that people are out in force in their fields planting everything from peanuts to rice to corn to various other staples. As far as what that means for my life, I have been doing my best to help my family mainly in the area of peanut planting and a little in the rice fields, but have also been trying to convince my beloved village to add on a little extra work to its busy days in the form of outplanting the tree nursery that we all began over 2 months ago. This has been a little difficult as you might imagine and my efforts have resulted in varrying levels of success. However as many of the older school age children are back from taking their high school exams and we have an "in house" tree planting date scheduled for this week I am opptimistic that we'll be successful.

As far as trees go we are trying to plant cashew and mango trees mostly scattered throughout people's home compounds along with a variety named Morenga (sp?) or Nebedia, a tree whose leaves people use to make sauce for corn or millet couscous. We also have Jatropha a variety of tree good for making live fencing for fields or compounds, and also whose seeds' oil can be used to produce bio fule. There is a possiility that the nearby goldmining company will start buying this after it finishes work on its new powerplant in seveal years. However this is not the primary reason for planting, really we'regoing for quality live fencing that won't get eaten or destroyed. The last variety we have is called Luciena, one which is good for planting in either fields or gardens as it is a nitrogen fixing tree and thus improves the soil around it.

So this is my biggest project these days although I did want to mention another that I do hope many of you take a strong interest in. This is the Leadership Camp we are oranizing for a region wide range of middle school students happening in september. While I believe I have mentioned this project before to many of you let me refresh your memories. We have already done an application process for the 11 middle schools in the region and are in the process of selecting students for the camp. The camp will have several integrated parts; leadership and team building, enironmental conseration, and entrepenurial skills development. It will work like this: We begin the camp with a series of team building activities and leadership challenges drawing the students together and having them solve problems as a group. We will then do a series of sessions on tree nursery creation and outplanting techniques, the neem tree being the specific variety we will propegate. We will then show the students how to make soap from neem leaves, create a quantity of soap qnd take it to the weekly market the last dayof camp and sell it. As the camp will occur right before the beginning of the school year, once we take all the student back to town we will take the money earned and pay for each of their years school fees. Thus it will be a very comprehennsive start to finish project on how to maintain and even regrow the natural enironment while also using it for small business development. Personally I think its a pretty wonderful plan for students. The catch is we are trying to raise money for food, lodging, and materials and for these purposes we have written a proposal through the Peace Corps and have a website through which donations to the summer camp are possible. The site is
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-100

I realize many of you reading this may not have the means to make any kind of major contribution but really anything you give would help. Also passing this information on to others you might know who would take interest in this project would be incredily appreciated.

Thanks so much for reading and checking out the site, this really is something I believe in strongly and with the right means I think we could change the lives of a lot of students.

In other news, my brother Charley and his girlfriend Leondra took off a couple weeks ago after a three week whirlwind tour of Senegal. from the SineSaloum delta to Khossanto the foot of Guinea Platau, I think I ran them a little ragged, but we had a pretty incredile time. Joined for a large portion by my girlfriend Leigh and good friend Dan, we saw some of the most beautiful parts of the country and I think its a trip they won't soon forget. Thanks to them also for being the first to come out and see me, and thus have an idea about what my life is really like here.

I'm dragging on a little, but thanks for sticking with it. Apologies about the pictures as usual, managed to get some up there but it doesn't look the others want to make it. Sometime soon inshallah

Thanks again to you all for all your love and support, it really keeps me going.

All the best for a wonderful end of the summer and please in touch.

Hi Friends,
Again its been a while and again due to some time constraints I'll keep this a little brief, but hey so it goes, sorry. Right now I am writing from the beutiful and luxurious city of Dakar having just finished up some thrilling midservice vacinations, physicals, dental apointments, etc. While these things in and of themselves aren't all that exciting its an excuse to hang out in the big city for a little while and it's been a pretty relaxing little break. The most exciting and immediate news is that my old brother, Mr Charley Adams will be arriving here in a matter of hours with his girlfriend Leondra. Together we'll be doing a Senegal extravaganza all the way down to Kedougou and back over the next three weeks. While the itinerary is up in the air right now it promises to be an exciting trip and reunion.
As for my life and times here in Senegal things are pretty good with the regular crushing failures and booming successes occuring on a weekly to bi-weekly basis. The rainy season has once again begun and things are starting to bloom and sprout all over the kedougou region. The tree nursery we begun with the women's group is going well with certain varieties looking a little stronger than others. The mango seeds we used were probably not the best and thus our yield is a little low for the mangos, but cashews and some of the other local varieties are doing really well. It looks like we'll come out of it with around 1000 trees inshallah. As I have spent a decent amount of time coaxing this project along the biggest test will come when I get back to Khossanto next week and see how things have faired in my absence.
So far we've had 4 successful onion sales to the gold mining company nearby and I can only hope this is the beginning of a relationship between the company and Khossanto as well as the rural community and region as a whole. As the rainy season is here and people have given up gardening for field crops we probably will wait until next season to pick up vegetable sales again.
Schools just about out and thus CCBI classes have tapered off of late, and I'm looking at a few mellow months coming up. With pretty much everyone working in the fields, no teachers around, and little time for other work, the rainy season will not be ideal for starting any major projects. I am looking forward to doing some small things I haven't done such as school murals, and increased collaboration with some of the Senegalese NGO agents working in my area in various fields. I'm also still struggling to get our camp funding proposal online so we can start raising money. But no worries, that is something I will be sure to let you all know all about as soon as its up.
Got a nice new roof on my hut and shade structure in my back yard just in time for the rain. I wish I could show you some pics but as charley is bringing me my new camera I don't have any yet but promise I will take some good shots and put them up as soon as I can.
Thats about it from my end. I hope all of you are doing really well, and I'll be in touch,
much love
willie

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Hot season in Senegal and how its come with a vengence. Days are hovering around 110-115 and I fear the worst of it is yet to come. I like to think of it as a good opportunity to flush our the poors, release some tension, a kind of continual sauna if you will.
Seriously though, despite the heat life here in the Kedougou region is moving along quickly and actively. Work wise the big news is the recently developed Kedougou regional strategy. In early march we had a regional retreat with Chris Hedrick (our new country director as of september) and a number of APCDs (sort of our sector bosses if that makes any sense). We spent a couple days in the beautiful village of Dindafelo (Chris's PC site when he was a volunteer here twenty some odd years ago, also site of the highest waterfall in Senegal) pretty much working ourselves to the bone developing an overall strategy for development in Kedougou over the next 7-8 years, our role therein, and a specific action plan for the next 6 months. Covering everything from Malaria prevention to HIV/AIDS education, native and fruit tree propogation, various local product transformation for merchandizing purposes, school curriculum develpment, new local market possibilities, and much much more.
This has obviously changed the way many of us are looking at our PC services. First of all not only do we have much more direction with concrete and measurable goals, but we are developing a new stategy of working cross-sectorally (i.e. Health Volunteers, working with Ag volunteers. working with Environmental Ed volunteers,etc. to pursue larger scale projects). Having this stategy worked out is also beginning to provide a lot more opportunities for working with other NGOs and development organizations. Since the beginnings of this plan Kedougou volunteers have already recieved 9000 mosquito nets for distribtuion in a certain area of the region, and the biggest news is that we'll be recieving (almost surely at this point) over 70,000 dollars for a larger scale, region wide HIV/AIDS prevention program.
These are only a couple of the biggest projects that have been born from this stategy, but it has really provided a lot of us with new motivation and the reality of taking on essential projects where needed. It has also provided a more communal responsibiity for our work and thus both support and accountability are much more fothcoming.
I realize this all sounds grand, but how has it affected me and my life in my village. The most interesting thing so far was that we did our first onion sale from my village to the gold mining company nearby in a collaboration with farmers in Kedougou and the Ag volunteer there. This was a super positive step in terms of breaking into this potentially huge market, but has also been very overwhelming as the sustainability of it is very much in question right now (i.e. it worked great, but theres no way it ever would have happened without us facilitating and playing middleman, and it is going to take a lot to get people to the point to take this on themselves). Otherwise we've been getting the plan for our summer camp together and I'm really excited about it. Most of the applications are with the schools as we speak and if all goes well we'll have our funding proposal on the web within a few weeks, thus those of you looking to make a little contribution to what promises to be one of the sweetest summer camps in west africa you'll be able to. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to let everyone know about that once its up.
Have also kept doing classes in my village, we're working on our first tree nursery, things are a little shaky right now with that, but again, I'll let you know how it turns out.
Had a sweet rock climbing trip outside my friend Matt's village for my birthday, a pretty nice way to celebrate I must say.
On the down side two good friends: Braiden and James have both decided to head back stateside for various reasons. In the end I think its making them happy and thus is a great thing for them to do, just a shame for us here to lose some of the homies prematurely.
Coming up I got about another week in Khossanto try to really get these trees rockin (its the organization and water schedule that seems to the most difficult at this point) and then and heading up to Thies for a week to help out with the training of the new volunteers who just arrived in Senegal. I'm definitely looking forward to getting back up there, seeing the training center again and meeting some of the new crew, not to mention eating pizza and crepes and reaping the benefits the big city has to offer.
Sorry this is kinda brief, I promise to fill in some more details in the near (relative term) future, I realize I'm skimming over a lot and leaving a lot out altogether.
Thanks again to all for you support and encouragement. I'd like to send a personal shout out to Mr. Chris Jain, the mountain won this battle but the war goes on, get well soon buddy.
Take care,
willie

Pics: from the top

1. My garend with my host mom

2.Getting into town after a 115k ride, longest day ever

3.Isle De Madeleine (Island) in Dakar during WAIST

4. Water treatment/vocabulary lesson in MadinaBerola, about 8k from Khossanto

5.Dan (my closest PC neighbor at about 38k) above some underground lava caves near his village

6.Inside the cave

7.Outside the cave...

8.More garden with mom

9.Mural outside Tostan rally in the city of Tamba

10.Kids during the Muslim new years celebration

11. Drame and Ci praying during new yeats

12. New TV and generator in my compound, everyone shows for the Africa Cup

13. Class in MadinaBerola

14.Me on top of the world in every senese at Sierra Nevada in Spain

15.Looking at the Mediteranean from the 2nd highest peak in the mountain range

16. Granada Cathedral

17. Sierra Nevada from the air

18. Kids at Tostan rally in Tamba (I don't know em, I just liked the picture)

Hello Friends,
This has been about the longest I've gone yet between posts, but lets call that a good thing as it means life has been busy. I've just gotten back from my second trip to Dakar in so many months and am feeling both completely exhausted but also refreshed. How is this true you may ask, well I come back having eaten more protein and general nutrients than I tend to see around here as well as having a slew of new work possibilities. At the same time this being the only time that almost every volunteer in country (not to mention those from other countries) are together in Dakar, I've been a little lacking in terms of sleep. This trip was for West African International Softball Tournament (WAIST), an annual event in which PCVs from all over West Africa, along with embassy workers, USAID and other American organizations get together in Dakar for 4 days, and have a massive softball tournament. Great outfits, questionable skill level on the field, American hot dogs, and beer all make for a mighty enjoyable weekend. All of the Senegal PCVs are also put up in American expat homestays for the duration in which we eat delicious food and live in the plush accommodations we miss so much from home. Really a pretty incredible time. This fun filled event was coupled with the all volunteer conference (only Senegal) during which we discussed broad country wide strategies for mostly malaria prevention and reforestation, while also having a number of interesting speakers from USAID discuss various funding options available to us for small projects. Thus some really incredible fun in the sun along with an influx of pretty inspiring possibilities from people who have been working in development a lot longer than I have left me feeling, like I said, exhausted but also inspired.
In other news I had an incredible vacation in Granada, Spain with my Mom, Dad, and Bro just after x-mas. I really couldn't have asked for more in a trip. The combination of down time, cool sightseeing, skiing and hiking, and eating the most delicious food I've every tasted, really put me in a heavenly place. It was also so wonderful to see my family and I can't wait until my brother and his girlfriend Leondra get out here to Senegal at the end of June. As you can see I just couldn't help myself and had to put up some of the sweet Spain pics, sorry.
Upon returning from this most delightful sojourn, things really got started with a bang in Khossanto. The day after I got back I had a meeting with all the teachers in my "district" (communaute rurale) and set up a schedule of classes for which I will spend a week in each of their villages working on incorporating environmental and health and hygiene oriented lesson plans into their curriculum. I believe I touched on this a little before but the idea is that in a given math class say, the teacher will be able to teach the exact same arithmetic lesson but do so in the frame work of deforestation, or treating your water, etc. It takes some real patience and a little creativity but so far I've really been enjoying myself and I finally feel like I'm actually contributing something real and important to my community. I've also started a garden with my host mom and have learned a lot from her and will hopefully be producing a decent amount of food for my family in the near future. The last piece of big news on the village front is a meeting I had with the former PC Senegal director Malcolm Versel during WAIST. After he finished in June he became the Director of Social Programs for MDL the HUGE Australian gold mining operation about 20k from khossanto. While in the very preliminary stages, we are beginning to discuss the possibility of selling vegetables from our Women's garden directly to the company. This would be an utterly win-win situation as they import tons and tons of food stuffs everyday all the way from Dakar and if they could even get a small percentage from my village, surrounding villages and Kedougou, it would not only cut down on their costs, but would theoretically have an incredibly substantial effect on local economy. Like I said this is all very early, but I have my first meeting with him next week and I am feeling guardedly optimistic that this could go through. Its also all a little overwhelming as I've recently been patting myself on the back for getting my local classes going on and now I am about to embark on a much larger scale project with which I have very little experience, but hey, that's what its all about right.
Anyway I'll wrap up, I know I've left out about a million interesting details and anecdotes, but more to come. Ooh, real quick, I've had a new roof put on my hut in preparation for the rainy season (no, its still a long way off....its really hot now). As I was sitting with my host brothers slowly tying straw into long sheets to be wrapped around the bamboo frame on my hut, my oldest brother, Moussa, brought out his boombox and a car battery to power it. They were playing their malinke music and we were jamming working in the hot sun and then I brought out a Stones tape...It was awesome. They cranked up the volume and blasted honkytonk woman across the village as we were sitting there preparing my future roof. I'll call that a fairly cross cultural experience.
Much love to you all, thank you all for your continued correspondence and support, it means more than you could imagine. Best luck in all you endeavors and I'llbe in touch whenever I can be,
willie