Rain situation

We are now midway through July and the rains have not increased in frequency from June at all, in no way increased as they are supposed to. We’re having about one rain a week, sometimes more than a week between rains. The situation is not good and the villagers are absorbed in their anxieties. A few weeks ago everyone was asking “Where are the rains? What’s happening, what are we going to do?” There were still many many people who have not yet plowed or planted and are waiting for a good rain to be able to do it. It has only rained a few times since then, so maybe the lack of those incredulous questions now is the sign of a relinquishing and accepting of defeat on some measure. The lack of rains affect all aspects of life in communities that are based on farming. My work of tree planting has screeched to a halt and I find myself no farther along with intended projects than in beginning June. This is a bit bewildering as I had thought all would be in the ground by this point, and I’m not sure if it will all work out. Not only because we need to wait for the rain to plant, but because everything in life here is connected to farming, most especially economics. There is a group in neighboring Lainde Karewa who wants to plant one field of anacardium (cashew fruit) and on field of mangos. They are being helped by WWF who pays 75% the price of fruit trees for reforestation. They have the land, they have dug all the holes, and we are ready at any moment to plant the trees. However they don’t yet have the 25% of the money. They too are waiting for the rains because then they can find work to raise the money: ploughing or planting someone’s field for pay. So lack of rain means lack of resources for money. And so we still wait. I find myself immersed in the same anxieties, wondering if it will ever rain in time to get all the proposed trees planted, anxieties about wanting the trees to do well. If we are already in mid-July and only have one and a half good months of rain left, will the trees even take hold and be strong enough to survive the dry season? If they die, all that work and money for nothing. I hate that as a possibility for villagers, yet is always a possibility. And there are the anxieties about percentages of trees; WWF requires that at least 40% of all trees planted with their reforestation project be fruit trees and 60% or less “forest” species. I’m sure that this policy emerged well-intentioned from the desks somewhere, people thinking something along the lines of “we need to encourage people to plant fruit trees to improve their nutrition or income.” However on the ground it is really crippling, as many people want to plant forest species, to integrate agroforestry techniques into their farms. People want fruit trees, yes, but they are expensive. And the differences of one field of mangos (25 trees) and one field of cassia siamea for alley cropping (156 trees) is huge. It was difficult finding enough groups who wanted to plant orchards to begin with to balance out the wood plantations, but now all of a sudden I have many groups who originally proposed fields of fruit trees, who are now pulling out, and I’m getting really worried. If the numbers don’t balance out to 40/60 WWF will not pay for the trees and everyone will be hurt. So I’m trying to figure out how to handle that and hoping people will drop out of the sky who want to put some mangos or anacardiums or citrus I n the ground. And in the meantime sitting and waiting.

balanced diet and eating--seasonal and local

Going south and seeing the abundance of fruit and veggies, the ease with which to find food, made us reflect or realize again how difficult it is in the north to feed oneself. So I thought I'd write an entry on my eating habits. In the land of no electricity (refrigeration) and weekly markets it is literally impossible to achieve a balanced diet on a daily basis, let alone on a meal basis. More attainable is on a weekly basis, which is what I aim for. Many volunteers ahve the same sxperience I have in that when we find something (whether in season, or a novelty) we eat a lot of it, because we won't necessarily have it again next week or tomorrow. I found zucchini for the first time in the Garoua market last week. So I bought two big ones and then proceeded to eat them for two days, lunch and supper, lightly cooked in a skillet with onions and then breaded and fried-delicious! It is true you really appreciate the taste of something when you haven't eaten it in nine months, and I recalled conversations around the table in my sustainable agriculture class in college, talking about how having tomatoes available all year round (yet tomatoes that are not necessarily very flavourful) takes away something from the delight and pure pleasure of tasting that first tomato of the season. Lack of refrigeration means that I can't cook a lot and then save it. Or buy a lot and save it. So if I cook a lot, I eat a lot, and also share a lot with neighbors, because much better giving it away than it going bad in one day in a hot kitchen. And tonight, for dinner, I ate 8 small bananas. Bananas are hard to get up in the north, however Mafa Kilda has some land with enough water all year round that people grow bananas. They are small, about 5 inches, and not always around, but sometimes a girl will come to the carrefour with a plate of bananas for sale, which is what happened this morning. And when that does happen I try to take advantage of it. I bought them thinking I'd save them over the course of a few days but then ended up eating all of them for dinner because I was too tired to cook, or think up something else to make with onions pasta and one tomato. Milk is another example. As much as I've tried I still can't get used to (or even swallow, much) powdered milk here, so when I can, I buy fresh milk from the Foulbe Ladde. And I am blessed to have a quartier in my village where they live. So if I want milk, I walk ten minutes to one of their houses and wait until one of the kids comes back from the cows in the morning, who are kept about 20 km away en brousse. If I wait too long all the milk and yogurt is taken to Garoua where the women sell it on the streets. When I buy it, I usually buy 1-2 liters because it is not worth boiling only a bit or walking there every morning. However, without a refrigerator it doesnt really keep, so that means I often drink 1.5-2 liters at a time--in one day. (I don't complain) Food of course goes in and out of season too. Now, mangos and tomatoes are out of season, meaning before I could find mangoes everywhere and now, not. Now, while tomatoes are still to be found in the big markets, their price is much higher. Eating seasonally and locally is such a popular conversation in the States right now, and I feel blessed to really be living that life and knowing what its like. You understand about local foods in that when you go south, pineapples, coconuts, and bananas are everywhere. They grow there. They don't grow in the North. And I could find them in the streets of Garoua but for more expensive. So it is really something special to go on a trip to the south, and not only to taste those things, but to bring them back as gifts. I plan out my meals accordingly, taking into account when I have access to certain things in town. When I go to Garoua, I usually try to eat a salad at a restaurant or on the street, to get fresh vegetables, and if I go out to a "nice" restaurant (rarely) I usually eat fish, due to two facts, that restaurants don't offer any vegetarian dishes here and that I figure its probably good every once and a while to get some fish protein. Other than that, my protein comes from beans, eggs and dairy. My diet is made up mostly of beans, bread, onions, tomatoes, dairy, lots of eggs, a few other cooked veggies I can find, cous cous, and lots of sauce leaves. One of the local dishes is Follere, (sorrel at home) and I have a follere forest growing in my compound now, so just go out and pick off the leaves of the plant and cook them in sauces to go with rice or pasta.
While it snot as "perfect" as perhaps perscribed in Western diets and not what I was used to, I have to say that I think its still fine and am feeling very healthy. If I aim for the balanced diet across a week, I think there are no problems. We've got it way better here than Chad, where volunteers eat pasta every day!
(Butter just also came into season! Yay!)