Rainy Season
hello again. it's officially the rainy season now, which is nice because it means much lower temperatures and fewer sunburns for me! it also is the time when the entire country actually has a job, that being to plant any and all surface area within reach with staples like millet, corn, green beans, peanuts, sesame, okra, and chickpeas. the association that i work with is active going village to village to distribute sesame seeds for planting and teaching best practices for planting, harvesting, drying, and storing the resulting crop which will, beginning in october, be transported with help from my association to the capital where it will be sold at international market prices to companies in the u.s. providing much needed cash (think school fees for their children, clothes, housing repairs, etc) for farmers who often to struggle to do more than self subsist. it has so far been a quite dry season, let's pray for a wet august and september which will be make or break time for literally millions of west africans.
Below are several photos from the last couple of months...enjoy!
*farmers gathered to discuss sesame production and receive seeds:
*my associations president (on left) and other workers registering seed distribution:
*a photographer takes shots of villagers who want to join the association (they love this part!)
*village kids and women near fields prepared, but not yet planted:
*more playful kids out in a small village:
*kids outside a village schoolhouse, with teachers and another peace corps volunteer in the background:
*while visiting a fellow volunteer, a man showed up with this guy and tried to sell him to us for ten bucks:
*my friend Brekke stands amidst the biggest waterfalls in Burkina, the Karfiguila Falls. hey, theres just not much water here! :
*this is me near the falls overlooking the expansive southwest of the country near Ivory Coast:
*the new pig raising house on my associations land, which will be used to teach other farmers how to raise pigs. it was part of a grant from the us embassy. :
*this is my host associations presidents kids, raul and ervish out helping to plant seeds:
*raul, ervish, and little wilson(willy as he is called!) :
*on a visit to aaron's site up near mali, we drank some ceremonial dolo (a type of cider made from millet) in a tree nursury that he helped organize:
Below are several photos from the last couple of months...enjoy!
*farmers gathered to discuss sesame production and receive seeds:
*my associations president (on left) and other workers registering seed distribution:
*a photographer takes shots of villagers who want to join the association (they love this part!)
*village kids and women near fields prepared, but not yet planted:
*more playful kids out in a small village:
*kids outside a village schoolhouse, with teachers and another peace corps volunteer in the background:
*while visiting a fellow volunteer, a man showed up with this guy and tried to sell him to us for ten bucks:
*my friend Brekke stands amidst the biggest waterfalls in Burkina, the Karfiguila Falls. hey, theres just not much water here! :
*this is me near the falls overlooking the expansive southwest of the country near Ivory Coast:
*the new pig raising house on my associations land, which will be used to teach other farmers how to raise pigs. it was part of a grant from the us embassy. :
*this is my host associations presidents kids, raul and ervish out helping to plant seeds:
*raul, ervish, and little wilson(willy as he is called!) :
*on a visit to aaron's site up near mali, we drank some ceremonial dolo (a type of cider made from millet) in a tree nursury that he helped organize:
posted by matthew konsa at
7:10 AM
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