Hello dearest friends!
The past two weeks all the health and environmental education volunteers from my group had in service training (IST), similar to pre-service training consisting of seminars all day from 8am to 6pm. Booooo. But really, these sessions were much more in depth and helpful, focusing mainly on our specific questions and where to go from here. When returning to Mampatim, the first thing I’ll be doing is surveying people in my village on the prominent problems/needs they have and what they want for their community so I can get a more focused idea on work. On top of that, we learned how to transform our schools into eco friendly learning environments, how to write grants for projects, bed net distribution methods and malaria education. We had sessions on child and maternal health, how to cook nutritional porridge for malnourished children and ways to incorporate moringa into their diets (aka miracle plant that grows like wild fire here and just so happens to be jam packed with vitamins!)
Older volunteers came to teach us about improved technologies they’ve developed using local tools and materials such as a mud stove and an incinerator for trash cleanup. Last but not least, I received all kinds of knowledge on gardening techniques, tree grafting, live fencing, and how to make a tree nursery. The best parts of the training days were when we actually got up to partake in hands on work instead of listening to the projects on slideshows and lecture forms. For instance, the day we learned about live fencing, we took a field trip to a nearby Mandinka village where we planted a couple hundred trees around their lake area. The locals came out to help, twas a great day!
Fellow Fulakunda speaking friends Sarah and Alana having a jolly good time getting the tree sacks together
My closest neighb at site, Cibyl, planting some trees with a local boy
Older volunteers came to teach us about improved technologies they’ve developed using local tools and materials such as a mud stove and an incinerator for trash cleanup. Last but not least, I received all kinds of knowledge on gardening techniques, tree grafting, live fencing, and how to make a tree nursery. The best parts of the training days were when we actually got up to partake in hands on work instead of listening to the projects on slideshows and lecture forms. For instance, the day we learned about live fencing, we took a field trip to a nearby Mandinka village where we planted a couple hundred trees around their lake area. The locals came out to help, twas a great day!
Afterward a delicious dinner at Massa Massa, we met up with the others at a hoppin' live music joint called Palais des Arts. We danced until 3 am!
In the running for one of the best nights here so far. Great music, great dancing, great food and great company. What more do you need in life?
In the running for one of the best nights here so far. Great music, great dancing, great food and great company. What more do you need in life?
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