Winter is the best time to garden here, when the mornings are cool, the sun is less intense, and the temperature doesn’t reach 90 degrees until mid-afternoon.  It’s so nice to wake up refreshed, put on a long sleeve shirt, and ride my bike to the school garden, for a pleasant morning of work. We are fortunate to have plenty of good well water, and a large storage tank at the school, which makes preparing the planting beds and keeping everything moist an achievable task.

When I arrived in early October 2017, it was the end of the rainy season, almost 100 degrees everyday, and still very humid. Some trainees had heat rash, everyone complained about how hard it was to sleep, and I needed to take multiple bucket baths a day to feel human. The locals and seasoned volunteers, kept telling us about the up coming cool season, where the locals wore heavy jackets, and put snow suits on the babies. By the end of October, the humidity was declining, which made sleeping at little easier, but it was still hot all day.  During November, there were a few nights when you could sleep with a light blanket, but the days were still 90+ degrees. Thankfully in December, the early mornings were dipping into the high 60s, but the days were still in the 90s. Finally, I realized what was meant by the “cool season” – it gets cool at night only.

Behind my home compound, is a rice mill that generates a huge pill of hulls. I take the hulls to school, one bag at a time on my bike, to use as bedding in the chicken house. I recycle the used chicken bedding into the garden beds, to fertilize and loosen the soil. The soil here is very sandy, which makes for stunted plants, and low crop production. Peace Corps promotes the “double digging” method of soil preparation, to improve farming results. We remove the original soil from the area to be planted, add whatever amendments are available, and mix it together, one layer at a time. This method is definitely a lot of work, but the process of double digging for several layers, and watering each layer as you go, can improve the soil for long term results. We hope to encourage the locals to adopt this technique also, so they can benefit from a more sustainable farming approach.

I am thoroughly enjoying my assignment at the Agriculture Technical College (ATC), where there are many ongoing projects to participate in. Being able to draw upon the experience of my counterpart, Jatta, will hopefully make it possible for me to make a lasting contribution during my time in service.  He  gives horticulture advise freely, helps me constantly with my work, and generously gives produce to the local women who come to fill their water containers. It’s been fun to interact with these women, sharing the double digging garden bed preparation method, and I look forward to when I can share my garden produce.

Jatta has established a tree nursery, and shares his knowledge with Peace Corps Volunteers from all over the country.  Gardening is an activity for all the sectors working here – Agriculture, Health, Education – and volunteers come to ATC to broaden their knowledge and take home trees for their villages. Jatta is always seeing opportunities to grow more trees. When we were having language classes at Eddys last month, he collected the fallen mangoes from a particularly hardy tree, planted them, so they will be available to enhance the local orchards. Loss of trees is big problem in The Gambia, particularly during the winter when the north winds, coming off the Sahara Desert, are severe. Reforestation, and planting trees as wind breaks to prevent soil erosion, is a top priority everywhere in this country.

GAD is the Peace Corps acronym for Gender and Development, and a PCV has many opportunities to promote gender equality. Cultures that have defined gender rolls, can create limitations for girls and women to succeed. ATC encourages both genders to participate in all vocational classes, and it is encouraging to see girls in wood shop classes, and boys gardening, because gardening is typically women’s work here. These students turned an overgrown area of the garden, into beautiful planting beds with hard work and enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, some kids think life will be easier in Europe or America, not understanding the difficulties a migrant has in the world today. Encouraging them to complete their education, and find career opportunities at home, can produce benefits for them and The Gambia.