Summary of the December-April:

So the past few months have brought me from Jali, up to Dakar, then to Pennsylvania for a month, back to Dakar, over a long bumpy road returning to the Gambia, then to Jali, an unexpected trip to Pretoria, South Africa for the entirety of February, then back to good ol’ Gambia. Needless to say, it’s been quite eventful!

Over Christmas when I went back to PA, the women did a remarkable job preparing their new garden for the dry season vegetables! It’s BEAUTIFUL. Then I was back for a week or so before leaving for South Africa. After returning to Jali after SA, I was a bit surprised that no progress had been made to fix the 5 dried up wells in the garden. As you probably know, these were just dug last March. So frustrating…

After a lot of “back and forth” on how we can solve this, the garden committee agreed to meet the following day between the 5pm and dusk prayer. I was waiting at the bantaba- the village meeting area as the men trickled out of the mosque and the women from their homes. A small group had formed, and small chat filled the air, “Oh yes, today is very hot”, “My kids, they are all fine.” Etc, Etc. I was pretty excited, mostly because I’d been trying to organize a meeting all week. We begin chatting about who we were still waiting for when one of the elders comes over and makes an announcement: “My wife is cooking a goat which we have sacrificed for charity. Everyone come eat meat.” As I begin to say, yes, we’ll all come AFTER our meeting, I quickly notice that I am the ONLY one at the bantaba as the group of people scurry to the goat party. How can I compete with that? Meeting adjourned.

So it was postponed until after dinner the following day. The next day, I quickly ate my dinner and headed over to the meeting spot. I told the committee members that if, and only if, the meeting happened TODAY, I would bring a treat for everyone. I’d been looking to share a large bag of double bubble gum that I’d gotten in a care package and this seemed like an appropriate occasion. We all pray to signify the beginning of the meeting and I distribute the chewing gum. Note to future self: Wait until AFTER the meeting to give large quantities of gum. Understanding Mandinka at night is challenging enough, not being able to see people’s mouths moving and facial expressions- which is really important! Now add the slurs from gum and loud chewing sounds- I’m done for…

After a few more lengthy meetings, we were able to hire a contractor to dig each well a bit deeper with the help from a local Koranic Reading fundraiser, ABARAKA Organization in Spain, and Appropriate Projects (http://appropriateprojects.com/taxonomy/term/7). I am confident that this garden will now last the Jali women many many years!