Pumps and Planting

It's not as strange as the title sounds, I swear. I am working on both, and it's been keeping me very busy indeed. Outplanting season has been in full swing while I've been complaining to you all about this country. That means that all the while I've been moaning about how annoying Senegalese people can be, I've also been out in the field every day with a shovel and a knife, cutting off all those bags I so lovingly filled and planting the little buggers in the ground. Mind you, these are mostly thorny species we're talking about, so this is a task that must be done with care.

In the meanwhile, my friend Garrison has shipped himself out to my site on a couple of occasions to install our village rope pump! After collecting a community contribution of 20 thousand CFA (about 40 dollars), Garrison's partner Water Charity has helped us fund a pump that will benefit a major portion of my village by increasing the ease and speed at which people can pull water for themselves and their animals. Here's the link that explains his overall project, 52 pumps in 52 weeks if you're curious about the details about how the pump is made, and I posted a few pictures of my village's project in the albums. Check it out.

At the moment, I'm in Kaolack, baking chocolate cake with Cassie and trying to get out a grant proposal for the upcoming school year's gardens in Babou Njittiy and Saloum Diane. I'll update more on the actual projects in the future. If I'm not mistaken, it is still July. According to Peace Corps, that's about when I need to be applying for money to get these gardens off the ground for a school year that starts in October. The take-home point from this: Peace Corps, despite it's reputation for trying to save the world, is still a government organization, complete with piles of paperwork and red tape. Remind me never to go into politics.

I'm pretty sure the chocolate cake takes priority right now.

~E.