Inside the Heart of Ghana - Cocoa Country

I am currently between jobs and have decided to take some time to explore agriculture in Ghana, West Africa. I am staying just outside of the capital Accra, which lies along the southern coast. Accra is well developed by African standards, as electricity is common as are plumbing and flush toilets.

Recently, I went to visit family relatives of my host here in Accra.

Life in the bush is still very much a work in progress. The area where I went to visit, in the south central region of Ghana is very much like bush villages in Guinea. The one distinguishing feature is the presence of electricity, kindly provided by a well made investment in a hydroelectric dam from Lake Volta. Other striking differences are the lack of donkeys and horses for transport, as well as roaming goats and sheep. The area is extremely lush and green, and definitely a tropical zone. 

The bush village I recently visited.

Primary cash crops include plantain, cassava, palm oil, and cocoa. In fact, the area is a hotbed for cocoa production.

Villagers cracking cocoa pods

Village boys with their drying cocoa.

Thankfully, food security is generally not a problem. People have enough to eat all year round. What they don’t have is money to develop their lives and villages.

Looking around, it can be hard to pin down exactly what’s holding back this region back economically. Unlike the places I’ve worked in Guinea and Senegal, this region does not suffer from the extreme environmental degradation that other parts of Africa have to contend with. In fact, one morning I went for a walk in one of the nearby national forests, which is very well protected and managed by the government and citizens alike.

Other than recommending the adoption of more sustainable agriculture techniques such as intercropping and organic pest control, there was not much I could immediately recommend that I felt would make a significant long term impact.

That was,

until the day I left.

Earlier in the week, I had asked the local village chief, the uncle of my host in Accra, if he had a deed to his property.

He said he had.

I asked if he would mind showing it to me. I was just curious to check out a theory some professor had made in a book I had recently read, called, The Mystery of Capital, by Hernando DeSoto.

He said of course.

So on my last day in the village, he brought out a two page document detailing the legal arrangements for “his” land.

What I saw made my heart sink!

The piece of paper that this man felt gave him ownership of his homestead and farmland was nothing more than a rental agreement, between his family (the tenant) and another company (the landlord).

And the terms of this agreement are so onerous that they border on modern day slavery!

The most onerous of these conditions is the price for which this family is paying for the privilege to farm this piece of land:

30% of the total harvest of cocoa.

Yes, you read that right,

30 percent their cocoa revenues disappears into their landlord’s pockets.

INTO PERPETUITY!!!

(There is no closing date on this lease.)

The document stipulating the terms of their servitude.

For those not familiar with business, this thirty percent is a serious chunk of money, no matter what country you are operating in. So serious that I doubt that many businesses could even survive with a parasite like this attached to their business.

In return, the families in this village, as well as in many other small villages in the area, are allowed to live here.

And the company has NEVER made any contribution to the development of the village.

No School. No medical center. No infrastructure or capital improvements.

NADA. NOTHING. ZILCH.

(The dirt road and electricity have been provided by the national government. The local primary school is privately owned, and families struggle to pay the school fees.)

This is the way it has been for this village since 1971.

Yes, for the last 45 years, this village has been a slave to this arrangement.

You might say, it’s the fault of the villagers for agreeing to such an arrangement.

Kind of like a white man coming to an African village in 1790 and offering a job and a life of prosperity to the chief’s son, only to never see him (or his “wealth”) again because he has been hauled away on a slave ship to America where he is the property of a white cotton farmer in the southeastern United States.

You might be inclined to say to let sleeping dogs lie. It has been this way for 45 years, so its not going to change. Why bother? ‘

Why rock the boat and disturb this

Peaceful and romantic life in the African bush that so many Americans hoist upon the struggling and exploited African peasant farmer?

Why?

Because I hope that there is something in all of us that is

worth fighting for,

that is

worth dying for.

Because poverty is not always about lack of economic growth.

It often is about

Deprivation

And the corrosive effects that deprivation has on empowerment.

Without personal empowerment and changes to the very social structure in which people live, efforts to alleviate poverty through economic growth will always fall short.

Sustainably and permanently reversing poverty so that everyone can claim a fair and equitable share of economic growth requires continual efforts to build, strengthen and expand empowerment!

Why must this be continual?

Because the forces that cause disempowerment are continual.

Not only those that directly cause disempowerment, but those that cause disempowerment through lack of attention or a misplaced toleration of unacceptable predicaments of our fellow human beings.

Building personal empowerment goes hand in hand with reducing exploitation.

As Amartya Sen says in the preface to From Poverty to Power, active citizenship can be a very effective way of finding solutions to pervasive problems of powerlessness and unfreedom. These efforts can make a huge difference in fighting intolerable and unacceptable deprivations.

So I need your help (NOTE I did not say your money… at least not yet.)

I need help telling this story. To bring it to life, not only in words, but in pictures and sound.

A documentary spotlighting the trap that these Ghanian farmers find themselves would be an ideal vehicle to bring a voice to these people. First, to document their fight to secure fair and just property rights for land that they have called home for nearly 50 years. Second, to provide a template and hope for others in their fight to secure legal title to the land they call home.

So what can YOU do to help?

WHO do you know who has expertise in this area? I am only 6 degrees from an activist filmmaker like Roger Moore… CONNECT ME!

WHO do you know who can provide legal help to these peasants to secure clear legal title to their lands? CONNECT ME!

WHO do you know who has social media experience that can help tell this story? CONNECT ME!

WHO do you know in the not for profit sector who is working in Ghana with whom I can partner with?  CONNECT ME!

Until then, I am working with local Ghanian friends to see explore other ways to change this unfair dynamic.  

 

 

Dy Season Doldrums

Dry Season Doldrums

Dry season continues in Senegal.  In a little over a month, the first rains will come.  Unlike in Guinea, where the rains start in May, the rains in central Senegal don’t start until July.  It’s barely enough time to grow field crops of millet, corn, peanuts, and sesame. 

The demonstration garden that I have devoted most of my time to is currently “resting.”  My counterpart has been busy building a new house.  You see, the main road that passes through his village is being expanded and improved.  His current family compound is slated for demolition to make room for the improved route.  So my counterpart has been laboring away trying to get his house built so he can return to building his garden paradise.

  

My counterpart and his new house... in progress.

In the meantime, I continue to gather compost materials for the rainy season.  Chicken manure, goat and sheep manure, bird feathers, fish waste, charcoal, peanut shells and more are being hoarded underneath the only tree in the garden. 

I know, I never thought it would happen to me.

Hoarding organic fertilizer!

Okay… garbage!

(Actually, it’s not really garbage; it is food for soil microbes.)

What have I gotten myself into?

Please, somebody give me a plant!

Initially, I thought that my collection of materials for a “super compost” would be rather benign.  But because my counterpart has been sidelined a bit longer than both of us expected, my stash has become the home for a nice family of rats!

Yikes!

But I am old enough to know that

When life serves you rats, you make ratatouille.

For the children.

Yes,

they,

the children,

eat rats….

When they can catch them!

And I have caught a few with my nifty invention.

Though there are no chickens in the garden to accidently eat rat poison (see my previous post about that experience in Guinea), using commercial rat poison is not an option for two reasons: my counterpart is committed to organic methods, and more importantly, all his money is going into building his new house.  As I am serving as a Peace Corp volunteer, I have declined to buy commercial (and toxic) rat poison as this would not only set a bad example (When the going gets tough, it’s okay to compromise) and it would not be sustainable (I would soon have all the villagers coming to me to buy them poison as well.)

So not taking a short cut has forced me to find a more sustainable way to eliminate a rodent infestation.

(I did willingly come here to solve problems.)

The solution which I have directed my efforts is one in which any African living in the bush can duplicate: a clay pot (or plastic jug) buried in the ground, and nearly filled with water.  With the right incentive, rats either jump or fall into the drink and bye bye rat.  Peanut butter placed on a conveniently angled slippery slope (plastic) seems to do the trick okay, but I am still experimenting with the most effective “assist” with the getting the critters into the pot.  (On occasion, the rats are able to enjoy a free lunch without going for a swim.)

An early version of my rat trap.

In the meantime, I need to find me a plant… to make use of my organic fertilizer.

I promise to keep all my readers updated.

On both the number of rats we catch…

And

What the village children have been eating for dinner!

Site Visits

Recently, I spent some time visiting various forest garden sites in Senegal with Curtis McCoy, Program Manager for Trees for the Future.  It was an opportunity for me to visit with Senegalese participant farmers from different regions of the country.  Many of these forest gardens are a bit more mature, as they have been working with Trees for the Future for a number of years already.

A typical forest garden in its first year.

Each site is unique, yet they all conform to an agroforestry model.  That is, trees are planted in the same area as the vegetable crops.  This benefits the farmer in several ways.  First, the trees reliably provide fruit (mangoes, soursoup, desert apple, oranges, lime, papaya, and banana) under low maintenance conditions.  Second, trees greatly improve soil fertility and structure as they recycle nutrients from deeper soil depths.  Lastly, the trees provide shelter for the more delicate vegetables.  It gets hot here in Africa (115 degrees F during April and May), and often the wind blows in from the Sahara desert to the north.   Dappled shade is extremely welcoming in gardens growing tender lettuce and tomatoes.

Farmers have generally embraced the techniques promoted by Trees for the Future, though it will take some time and repetition to get most farmers to see the efficacy of certain permaculture techniques.  In many gardens, the soil is really poor and compacted. Getting vegetables to grow and to produce something is the first step.  Step two is to maximize production.

Training session with the lead technicians with Trees for the Future.

 

In addition, those who choose to grow vegetables during the peak of hot season (March through June) have another difficulty to overcome: insects!  It is not only the animals who go on their annual weight loss plan, the insects do as well.  When you create an oasis of green in the vastness of leafless trees and dead weeds, you are inviting trouble for yourself.  Dry season gardening creates challenges that I am still trying to find effective solutions for.  It is disheartening to spend weeks growing and watering cabbages, only to see them get eaten alive by caterpillars.  In other cases, the plants will still produce fruit, but not as prolifically as when the insect pressure is negligible.

An example of insect damage to the African vegetable Jaxatu.

Human nature invites us to take shortcuts, no matter what country you live in.  However, as I have said before, the earth knows what it needs, and the more completely you understand this dictate, the more prosperous you will become.   I am not under the illusion that every participant will create a textbook model forest garden.  The adjustment process will vary from participant to participant, but eventually, those with a sincere interest and passion for agriculture will get it.  And what they worked so hard to achieve, they will fiercely protect from destruction.

Fiercely protecting the environment. 

Now that is something that will save Africa!

International Development in Africa

I am working with Trees for the Future, a small (annual budget is less than $2 million dollars) non-profit organization / non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in the United States.  They share the development space with thousands of other NGO’s, all of which have different philosophies and approaches to assisting third world people and countries.

At times, I encounter these other non-profits working in the region.   Though I have not yet found an organization that has implemented the perfect development approach, some non-profits are more effective than others.

A case in point is a rather large non-profit that has a history of creating projects in Senegal.  I mention this non-profit because part of the space where I am currently creating a forest garden with my counterpart previously was the site for a rainy season dam. 

This NGO had the “brilliant” idea of trying to dam a rainy season river to create a water source that would last a few months into the dry season.  In doing so, the executives of this NGO had hoped to facilitate the creation of a gardening co-operative for the local village.  They even created two large composting pits that my counterpart is currently using.  On its surface, damming a river seems like a great idea.  However, this is a big undertaking that has more widespread ramifications when one considers that no village lives in a vacuum.  There are many other villages, some downstream from a potential damming site.  This is a project that probably was best left to the national government to pursue as infrastructure development.

Nonetheless, the NGO attempted to dam this river.  Twice.  Both times the dam failed.  I don’t know about you, but building a dam is not rocket science.  It doesn’t take a genius to construct a dam that will withstand the forces of a surging river.  Evidently, they didn’t have the money to hire an engineer, and the dam failed… (and the town rejoiced). 

The remnants of the dam near my counterpart's garden.

Their money would have been better spent by digging a well, complete with a solar panel pump.  It sure would have beat the money constructing two poor quality dams that got destroyed. 

Another NGO that is working in the area is having better luck, at least for now.  Their research revealed two major problems: an increasing number of young people leaving the Kaffrine prefecture in Senegal, and the ever-present problem of food security.  Their solution for both of these problems was to enclose a few hectares with metal fencing so that the space could be converted to gardening and crop production activities.  This included installing a drip irrigation system for dry season gardening.  During the rainy season, the space will be used for field crops (corn, millet, peanuts).  Thus, the project will create a few jobs for the young people in town, and yield something productive from the vast amounts of land that exist in Africa.

The drip irrigation system for the tomatoes.

This project is in contrast to the work that Trees for the Future is doing.  For one, the fencing is permanent wire woven fence.  There is no plan to create a more sustainable, living fence model (with trees).  Second, there is no incorporation of trees in the cropping system.  Fruit trees such as mangoes could easily be planted and would produce a valuable agricultural commodity.  In addition, trees would have the ability to recycle soil nutrients in a way that annual vegetables are unable to do.  Certainly, the simplicity of the current system is attractive to their financial supporters, but there is an opportunity to do so much more.   Some participants are experimenting with manure and chemical fertilizer, but this is not a focus of the project.  I imagine also that crop residues will be burned in the typical African custom, rather than being recycled into compost and returned to the soil. 

We live on a vast planet where we are all free to do as we wish.  Independence is a major value that most of us take for granted.  However, the planet is highly interconnected, and we could achieve better results if we cooperated and worked together on the world’s problems.   Perhaps then our results would be amplified and we could achieve something that no single organization is able to do on its own.

An Introduction to Permaculture

PERMACULTURE

It is a word that many Americans would have difficulty describing accurately.  It can be complex and difficult to understand.  Countless definitions exist that try to capture the essence of permaculture, yet they are often incomplete.   Many associate permaculture with the new age movement or a hippie lifestyle.   Though many proponents emphasize a deep spiritual connection with the earth through the practice of biodynamics, or advocate an off the grid lifestyle as with the use of composting toilets, these are not fundamental doctrines of permaculture.  These spiritual and social activities may complement permaculture, but they are not permaculture.  Permaculture is a biological science, not a social science or a spiritual science.

(I define spirituality as strictly a human endeavor.  Whether or not a tomato has the capacity to connect spiritually with basil growing next to it is a subject for a completely different blog entry.)

Permaculture describes the ecological vitality and diversity of a cultivated parcel of land, both horizontally and vertically.  It requires the presence of trees, hence the use of the term “forest garden” by many practitioners.  Many gardens that exist can never be considered permaculture, no matter how biologically vibrant and diverse they are.   Once you understand how nature operates, especially in an old growth forest, the concept is rather simple.   

Permaculture mimics how a forest operates when not disturbed by human activities.

Tomatoes planted with mint utilizes the groundcover and herbaceous zones of permaculture.

 

Onions planted with lettuce utilizes the underground and the herbaceous zones of permaculture.

  

Permaculture, as I define it, is:

A temporally and spatially diverse gardening system that is self-sustaining and inherently resilient, agriculturally productive and ecologically vibrant due to its interconnected, redundant, and cooperative elements.

Because gardening is a human activity, human intervention is required to create a permaculture environment. 

My role with Trees for the Future is to facilitate the adoption of the forest garden system to restore degraded lands, as well to improve food security and household incomes.   To help focus my efforts and those of the lead farmers in the region, I have condensed the key philosophies that underlie permaculture/forest garden systems.

Key Philosophies of Permaculture Include:

1.    All vertical and horizontal spaces, known as the seven permaculture zones, are utilized to enhance productivity in three dimensions.

2.    The productivity is abundant and continual, as there is always something ready to be harvested. 

3.    Chemical inputs are not allowed as they destroy life within the ecosystem.

4.    In a well-balanced and mature ecosystem, everything is recycled, with minimal external inputs.

5.    Effective and sustainable agriculture techniques are practiced and serve to support the diversity and abundance of the ecosystem.

6.    Multiple methods are used to achieve important functions and to create synergies.  This redundancy protects the health of the garden when something fails.

Like I mentioned previously, permaculture is a concept not easily understood by Americans, let alone by villagers living in remote villages in Africa.  Even though gardening is often practiced by women’s groups or by individuals, they often farm in ways that are unsustainable.  The excessive burning of organic material, lack of composting or mulching, and monocropping are a few practices that invite problems when employed habitually.   

For instance, it is frustrating to watch a woman ignore your advice to align her garden bed with the slope of the land, rather than the aligning it geographically with other beds nearby.   In concentrating solely on the uniform shape and placement of each bed, soil is continuously eroded to the lowest point of the bed with each successive watering.  (Yes, my counterpart spoke to her in her native language that she was fully capable of understanding.)

The land is wiser than you are.  It was here before you were born.

Listen to it!

It is not my goal, nor is it the goal of Trees for the Future, to simply provide an enclosed space in which the community can speed up the degradation of an already degraded land.  Part of the 4 year program designed by Trees for the Future is in monitoring and evaluating the success in not only improving the livelihoods of the target community, but also in teaching and reinforcing the agricultural knowledge that will allow farmers never to go hungry again.

The techniques that I teach are often foreign.  (But so are many of the vegetables and fruits that have become staple crops for most Africans.)   They also are not easy.  Building and maintaining a compost pile for instance is more labor intensive than simply throwing the manure you collected from your livestock on your fields prior to cultivating.  The regular practice of improved farming techniques will bring long-term dividends.  They are simple to understand and to implement.  I am always open to questions.  And if we disagree on the efficacy of a technique, I usually recommend an experiment, where two different techniques, where one is the traditional “African” method, are tested side by side.  (Though I understand that some techniques require several years to prove their superiority.)

My counterpart taking a soil sample.  He will refer to it to verify soil improvements in future years.

 

Despite the challenges with some individuals, it is refreshing to have a participant farmer enthusiastically tell me that he implemented companion planting of lettuce and onions after hearing from me that it was a great combination.  These are the farmers I try to nurture.  As a volunteer, I am prohibited from profiting financially from my efforts.  I freely share this with the farmers I work with.  I have no ulterior motives. I am not trying to advance the interests of a big multinational firm looking to make an easy profit off the African peasant.  All profits and improvements that they make are theirs to keep, to do with as they wish.

For those that lag behind, there is but one option. 

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Composting 101

One of the most important rules in sustainable agriculture is:

When you take, you must replace!

Conventional agriculture has totally missed the mark in this regard.  When you pick a vegetable from the garden, it has many nutrients. 

Where do you think those nutrients came from?

Yes, the soil.  When you take something from the soil and fail to replace it, what do you think will happen?

Exactly!  The soil will contain fewer of those nutrients in the future, and consequently, the next crop will contain fewer nutrients.  Eventually,

the soil will become depleted of macronutrients AND of micronutrients!

Chemical fertilizers contain an abundant amount of just three nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium) that do nothing to improve the long-term vitality of the soil.  In addition, they over-stimulate the soil biota to the point that with continual exposure, the soil becomes fatigued, depleted and eroded. 

Chemical fertilizers actually cause soil to be consumed.

This is not a technique that will revitalize Africa’s soils!

Composting is one such technique that complements permaculture / forest garden systems.  Good compost contains all the nutrients that synthetic fertilizers contain, AND MORE.  It is far more complete and balanced with nutrients, and has an ability to support soil biota that chemical fertilizers can never do. 

Compost is organic material that has been reduced to its simplest form.  It is the foundation for building humus.  Humus adds vital nutrients to the soil, balances the soil with a wide range of nutrients plants need for growth, aids in the growth of microbes (soil biota) which give plants the nutrients they need when they need them, improves the water holding capacity of the soil, helps sandy soils retain water, and helps to loosen clay soils.  It is a natural and completely safe fertilizer that builds strength in the soil.  Strong soil helps plants grow fast and resist disease.  Unlike with chemical fertilizers, it is hard to add too much compost to the garden.

Most Africans are still ignorant of composting basics.   Because composting can be made with any organic material available in the area, there is not much incentive for private companies to promote its use. People are much more familiar with chemical fertilizers, as companies all over the world make a tidy profit on its sale.  Lacking the heavy promotion that has supported the adoption of chemical fertilizers, many Africans are still not aware of the more complete benefits of compost.

My goal is to help balance the scales and educate more people as to the benefits of compost and how easy to is to make. 

To make compost, you need just three things:

organic material

water

oxygen

 

That’s it!

It is simple and replicateable for every man, woman, and child who wishes to naturally enrich their garden soil.   Most importantly, its simplicity and price (free) make it a technology that is definitely applicable to the third world context. 

Because when you take care of the earth,

the earth will take care of you.

So on December 16^th, I had a meeting at my counterpart’s garden to teach basic composting techniques to ten lead farmers in the area.  (My counterpart and I also taught double digging bed preparation and its efficacy in permaculture.) 

Some participants in my compost making class.

 

For the uninitiated, how does one make really good compost in Africa?

1.    Add a variety of organic materials and wood ash.  Available components can include peanut shells, millet chaff, green tree leaves (especially those that fix nitrogen), dry leaf litter, rumen contents from a recently slaughtered cow, weeds, spent tea leaves, fruit peels, spoiled food, and manure from most farm animals.

2.    Avoid adding inorganic materials.  This includes glass, partially degraded plastic bags, broken sandals, worn out clothing with holes in the wrong places, and dead batteries.

3.    Add ingredients in layers.

4.    Use some termite soil.  Termite soil contains essential nutrients, beyond the reach of crop roots, that are brought to the surface by termites. 

5.    Avoid adding too much soil.  This will smother the compost pile and hinder oxygen from getting to the microbes.

6.    When you are making the compost pile, water every two layers.

7.    Keep the compost moist but not under water.

8.    Turn the compost at least every two weeks to give the microbes oxygen and expose the microbes to un-decomposed organic material.

9.    Really good compost is dark brown or black and has a sweet, earthy smell like the forest.

Additionally, compost piles made in the dry season in Africa are entirely or partially made in a hole to diminish evaporation of water from the pile.  Though it is not so hot in December, the temperatures will begin to climb in February.

Intentionally making compost does take two to three months.  Nature is in the process of making compost everyday.  With regular rains, organic material is continually being transformed into humus.  However, when the rainy season ends, this process stops.   Given water, this organic material will continue its progression into compost. 

There is one aspect of compost making I enjoy teaching: 

Where to find already made or partially made compost?

If you live near a river, you can often find piles of organic material that have been deposited by the water flow and have started to decompose.  This partial compost can definitely be added to a compost pile.  (Of course, any inorganic material should be removed first.) 

Another source of finished compost or nearly finished compost is from villagers who don’t understand the benefits of soil enrichment.  Instead of using animal manure from their livestock to improve the soil in their garden or field, they choose to pack it into a rice sack and throw it into the bush.

No, I am not kidding!

I, always the resourceful individual, stumbled upon these sacks thrown into the fields.  Often, the manure is nearly decomposed, having been left undisturbed during the rainy season. Occasionally, there is too much trash mixed in with the manure to make it useable.

Could that be a bag of manure... or something else?

And once in a while, I’ll find something inside the bag that I wasn’t expecting.

Like the time I spotted a bulging rice sack 100 or so yards from the road.

“Another sack of gold for the garden,” I thought to myself.

When I got close and took a peak inside…

Nope.

DEAD GOAT!

Oops.

Not something I want in my compost.

At least in my counterpart’s garden, there is no shortage of compost.   Come rainy season (a long 6 months away), we plan to have numerous compost piles already made with nearby weeds, manure, etc. to receive the bountiful rainfall that occurs between June and October.  The only work we will have to do is to turn the pile every two weeks.  And voila!  A bumper crop of compost!

This compost could even become an income generating activity!

So, who wants to make some compost?

Asalaa maalekum!

Installation - Senegal

I have arrived at my site in central Senegal and I am adjusting well to a country where snow never falls.  Although my work takes me to many surrounding villages in the African bush, I have the convenience of living in a moderately size town with electricity. Not that everyone has electricity, but it is available to those families that can afford it.  Since I do use the internet for part of my job (submitting required reports), it is recommended that I have regular access to the internet.  This explains my placement in a town versus in a bush village where electricity is almost non-existent.  Of course, there are times when the electricity, as well as the phone service, does not work, as I also experienced while living in Guinea.

My rather spacious BRICK house.

I have not yet decided what to do with this tractor bucket that lies in my front "yard."  Perhaps it might make a good bathtub when rainy season arrives. 

 

 

   

Living with a host family is not new as a Peace Corps volunteer.   Having someone prepare all of my meals is new.  It is actually more convenient to allow someone else to cook for me as wood is rather scarce here and buying charcoal just to cook for one person is not very efficient nor sustainable.  Like in Guinea, diversity in the diet is severely lacking, and most families subsist on a diet of rice or couscous plus some kind of sauce, with or without a few chunks of the locally available vegetables – potatoes, eggplant, okra, piment, onion, hibiscus, squash, or beans.  Meat that is not fish is rarely consumed, and when it is, each person is limited to a morsel or two. (Fish is consumed almost everyday by my host family.)

Usually, I eat from a rather large communal bowl with the family, with most using their right hand to serve themselves.  (I, and sometimes other family members, will use a spoon.  I have not yet mastered the “hand” technique of getting non-sticky rice or couscous from the bowl to my mouth without half of it falling all over the place… and my family laughing at me!)   Need I not mention that the left hand is reserved for bathroom duty.   

Should I contract some nondeadly illness, I have a well stocked medical kit issued by Peace Corps with both prescription and non prescription drugs.  The best I approach is just to surrender yourself to Africa and deal with any challenges as they arise.  Oh, and drink (mostly) filtered water!

Invitation!

  

Part of the integration process that Peace Corps is well known for is being given a local name.  My name while in Senegal is Ousmane Ndao.  Of the few Ousmane’s I have known in my life, all have been extremely well behaved and dependable, so this should be a good omen.   Whenever possible, I encourage Senegalese youngsters to greet me with my adopted name Ousmane, and not with the more pervasive and demeaning “Toubab.”

(“Toubab” in Senegal is a generic term for “white person.”)

Another important aspect of integrating into my community is learning the local language.   On this particular adventure, I am beginning to learn Wolof, the primary African language in Senegal.   My counterpart, I shall call him Boubacar, lives in a Madinke village.  Amazingly, he shares the same last name as my counterpart in Guinea, who hails from a different ethnic group, the Bassari.  Boubacar speaks French, Wolof, Madinke, and some English.  I have already drawn the line.  Except for a few salutations in Madinke, I am focusing on learning Wolof.  One new language at a time is enough!