Monday, June 25, 2012

Mid Service (plus ou moins)

Time flies...
I've been in Guinea for almost a year now and can't beleive how fast it's come and gone. I've felt like I've been productive and done a lot, yet the one year I have left seems so short a time to finish everything I want.

As part of our midway point in service, and to talk about secondary projects we'll be doing during the summer vacation, the education volunteers had a meeting in Mamou. We each brought someone from our village with whom we want to work with during the summer. I brought the women who is in charge of the women's groupement. We're planning to work on reading, writing and basic calculations for the women of the groupement.

At this meeting I also learned about Moringa trees, which I already knew a little bit about from my experience in water sanitation in Uganda. However, I did not realize how all-around incredible this plant is - every single part of the tree can be useful for something (good nutrition, medicine, extracting oil, water clarification, and more). Moringa trees grow fast, can handle drought, like poor soil, and like lots of sun (in other words perfect for most of Africa). Not amazed yet? They are also nitrogen-fixing which means they enrich the soil around them for other plants. I got some seeds and I'm going to try to plant them around my house and my neighbrohood. Read more about them here: Trees for Life

In a few weeks I'll be leaving site for a month which makes me really sad. However, I'm leaving because I'll be in Dubreka to help with the stage of the new education volunteers which will be arriving in July (which makes me happy). And if any of you G-22ers are reading this, I can't wait to meet you!

Madame N'dao and me in Mamou
Me and my Peace Corps Guinea besties, Mary and Juliette
Going for a walk through Mamou villages
Mamou is in "Middle Guinea" but I like to think of it as Middle Earth

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