agroforestry library completion

Some of you may remember the project to renovate a room to house different resources for agriculture and agroforestry? With funding from the Commune of Garoua 3, the project is now complete. There are posters, books, and pamphlets housed here, as well other group project materials (i.e. a beehive, while waiting to be placed outside). We have been using the area outside to hold courses on beekeeeping, and it will be a good spot for any future classes. The room can also serve as a sort of "office" for the peace corps volunteer to hold "office hours" if anyone wants to meet and talk about farming or questions.

this seasons colors

The crops are all reaching the end of their lifespans, corn stalks turning brown, golden heads on rice, yellow soy and peanut leaves, millet stalks golden with red tops. Yet the rains have not quite stopped yet, (although we might have gotten the last drizzle last week), so the grass, and general vegetation is still green here. This makes for a beautiful contrast and palette of bright greens and dark greens and golden yellows, and sorghum red. What a lovely time of year. Soon though, with the end of all the rains, the grass and trees and other plants will catch up with the crops, all turning yellow and brown, except for a few trees and watered things. I prefer it right now, and have been appreciating the variety of color.

All my peanuts have been harvested, and this year, the rain was pretty poor, so everyone's peanut harvests are bad. Soy is also ready to harvest, so I might be doing some of that in the next week.

birthday hike

I had a lovely birthday today. A few volunteers spent the night at my post the night before, and the morning we met up with two Cameroonian friends, Cheik Abdul and Alpha Barry, to hike a mountain. It is a mountain I have seen for the past two years and wanted to hike, and finally this year said, I will climb it on my birthday. It was Cheik's first time climbing a mountain! We set out at around 8 am I think, and probably got to the top around 10 or 10:30. The view from the top was beautiful, views of Garoua, the mountains of Adoumri/Bibemi, Lagdo, the Benoue from Lagdo to Garoua. You could see all the tiny villages, including mine, along the road from Sanguere Paul to Mafa Kilda. The colors were stunning, even though it was slightly hazy. A flock of European beeeaters circled the top as soon as we got up there. I brought my watercolors and Alpha brought his garaya and at the top we ate bananas, painted, played/listened to music and looked and looked. At the top there is a little crest, which was completely covered in grass, which had turned golden. So that when you walked over that ridge, all you saw was golden waist high grass, a few scraggly trees, and blue sky everywhere. Very surreal. I wanted to build a little hut up there to spend the night in. Finally, as the sun broke the cloud cover and started to heat things up, we headed back down. Slipping and sliding down the steep slopes. We also got a sighting of two monkeys from a distance, in the fields.

The afternoon, we sat in my courtyard, and Alpha played and lured in children with his songs, so that my mat was overflowing with people. After, we visited my local market, sampled some bilbil, and then headed into Garoua for dinner at a restuarant and dancing. It was a perfect day.