Acquiring a Green Thumb

By joining Peace Corps, I knew I would be gaining an invaluable experience and learning new things over my service time. Those were some of my main reasons why I joined.  Never did I actually imagine that I would discover my inner green thumb just waiting to come out and garden.  As a small enterprise development volunteer, I didn't actually think that I would be doing anything with agriculture, or even small scale gardening.  I thought my work would be business related rek. But after being here for about a year, I realize that quite a bit of my work revolves around agriculture, especially living in the Kolda region: that's all we really got going on down here :)

So about a week and a half ago, I helped participate in another volunteers palm reforestation project in a few villages just outside of the city of Kolda.  I'm not an agroforestry volunteer, but I was more than excited about helping out! We helped superivse the planting of 2 different species of palm trees, and we helped ensure that proper protection measures were taken to avoid them being devoured by rampant goats, sheep, cows, etc. The project was a lot of fun, and it was nice to mix up my work by helping other volunteers in their projects.



Ally helping plant a palm tree



Some of the palm trees that we helped distribute out








I've also expressed my newly acquired green thumb by starting a small garden in my compound, next to my room.  Ally, my agroforestry volunteer gave me some trees: Papaya, Guava, Citrus, and an African Mahogany. My family and I planted the fruit trees in my garden along with a ton of moringa and the beautiful panté seeds I collected back in April (see former blog posts).  My brother Diouldé added some cucumbers (which get gigantic here!) and some onions.  Eventually we want to add some tomatos, and when the season is right we have lettuce and cabbage.  I love having a garden.  Before Peace Corps I never really had a desire to plant anything or maintain a garden.  The last time I actually tried growing stuff back in America was probably when I was 5 years old and I planted a peach pit in my backyard because I wanted a peach tree.  Of course it didn't grow in Arizona, probably from the fact that I only watered it on the day I planted it, then never again.  Peace Corps has brought out my inner green thumb! I love watching the seeds I planted grow, and now our yard is beautiful! No longer just a burnt garbage pile.  I've decided that when I return after my service I will always have a garden. I also want to continue to plant trees.  Trees are amazing! It'll probably be a little easier having a garden in America too because we don't have to worry about it being eaten by wandering animals, which is often the case here.
 I take comfort in the fact that my host family will benefit from this small garden, even after I leave. I love that they actively help in taking care of the garden and are excited about it :)

The beginnings of our compound garden...

Mutant Cockroaches!

What is brown, has 2 sets of antenneas, 12 legs, a shiny outer shell, 2 heads, and lives in my douche???? 

Yea, that's right, a teenage mutant ninja cockroach. Check out the pic below:

SICK! SICK! SICK!

I saw this thing the other night when I went to bucket bath before bed.  It was super creepy! At first I thought maybe it was weird cockroach sex (?), but when they didn't separate and scurry along when I flashed my flashlight at them, I began to worry. I texted my friend who knows everything about everything when it comes to insects (and other critters) to let her know that I have mutant roaches living in my douche that want to eat me.  I was hoping for some insight to this disgusting phenomenan: Over exposure to shampoo?  Radio-active garbage in my douche? Too many mango peels? What would cause such a scary insect monster?

The answer: siamese twin cockroach. A fusion in which a fertilized egg completely separates, but stem-cells conjoin the cockroach twins together creating a creepy insect monster living in my douche!

Siamese twin roach living in my Senegalese toilet

So what does this mean for me? I guess I'll let the nasty mutant live as long as it steers clear of my room.  The minute it so chooses to enter (like other bugs), I will douse it in pesticide and smack it repeatedly with my fly swatter. Freak of nature. Cool Phenomenan. Whatever. I'm completely terrified of it!

Lamude

Qu'est-ce que c'est??? : An extremely tart fruit of Western Africa, found abundantely in the south of Senegal.  In Pulaar it's called Lamude (litterally means sour thing). The word for sour is lami.  When I first tried this exotic fruit I found myself saying, Lamude no lami buy! which basically translated to...the sour fruit is really sour--go figure! God, I love pulaar :)

So here it is: A yellow exterior which nobody eats, you have to squeeze the sides of it together to pop it open at the top. Inside you will find the yellow, pulpy fruit that surrounds the seeds.  There are usually many inside depending on how big it is.  Here in the market you can get a small one for 25cfa (like 5 cents in America) or a larger one for 50 cfa (10 cents).

I've seen various methods for eating this deliciously sour fruit.  My host family likes to crack it open and put salt and Magi cubes (bouillon cube equivalent) on top.  That version is ok. I like to put chili pepper powder with mine (We call it American chile pepper at my compound because I brought the chile powder from Amerik) The kids like it that way too!

Me and the kids eatin Lamude!


A lot of the local women's groups around here use the fruit to make juice (really really good!) and jams.  If you add lots of sugar to it, it curbs some of that biting sourness.  I really enjoy eating it raw, but I am also a lover of sour fruit (I used to eat lemons raw on my breaks while working at PF Changs a few years ago).  I love all the cool and exotic fruits widely available here! 

Me and Aminatta sharing a lamude