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