I thought to share today’s schedule. My morning began with a short meditation and a cup of coffee. I have bought this Brazilian coffee with cardamom (label indicated Lebanese style coffee) which is pretty good I have to say. I have not find a place yet where I can get a good quality coffee here so care package with a tasty coffee is always welcomed. Afterward when looking for the wheelbarrow I run into my family preparing breakfast. So chat and a second breakfast together with my family followed. Then my host dad left for Tanji to get the fish for the week and my host mom, Sima, was getting ready the little one, Asi, for the nursery school. After the morning preparations were finished I was able to sneak with the wheelbarrow and continue working on the garden – to prepare the third, last, garden bed and to prepare the tree nursery soil and bed. Shortly after my host mom, Sima, was going to the market to buy ingredients for the lunch. Of course I joined her. The market was filled with women chatting, bargaining, laughing, shouting - truly harmonious chaos. It is a local market and the main goods sold there are food items for cooking lunch: vegetables, oil, fish (raw, dried and smoked), peppers, salt and few other not food related items. As I was passing the tables some women shouted disappointingly that I do not come greet them, so I spent part of the time meeting women and greeting them. We got some fish, bitter tomato, tomato paste, fresh tomato, dried fish, smoked fish and oil for the lunch meal. After we got back home I finished the bed and the nursery and got ready to go see the first Gambian processing plant.
I met this amazing hardworking women, Binta, yesterday when she was visiting my host mom, Juju. She has a successful garden of her own which I look forward to visit in the near future and also she is leading the effort of the processing plant. I learned that by accident trying to explain to my host mom, Sima, in Mandinka that I want to build a solar drier. My language skills are not that suitable for such complicated conversation so my speech sounded more like newly invented language. Binta came to help to translate (she knows English) and told me about the plant and different solar driers they use for the food processing. I was intrigued… The first processing plant in the Gambia and is run and owned by the women in the community. She invited me to visit and I with pleasure visited the place today. The plant did not operate for the last two years because they did not have support and market. But now they are trying to start it over again. At the moment 25 women work there: 5 each of the workday. The products they prepare at the moment are: vinegar and Pepper sauce (very hot!). When the mango season comes (in a month or so) they have equipment to prepare mango juice and mango jam. The other foods that can be processed in the plant are Ketchup and pineapple jam. Two largest problems that they face are water availability and marketing. They do have one tap onsite that is used for the garden. However, the electricity for operating the pump is very expensive for them to be able to support the plant operations. So they are planning to have the water piped from the water supply, for which time line is not known. In regards to the market, they need vehicle and a person with a marketing experience to help them market the products. Their plan is to visit the villages upcountry and market/sample/sell their products there.
I really want to help them and see them succeeding. So if you come across the grant or funding that support the women efforts in business in the developing countries, please, let me know. I was really amazed by her dedication and eagerness to work hard to make this processing plant successful. It will create the job opportunities for the women, serve as an example to encourage similar projects and help the country to be more self-reliant.
I spent the afternoon making the shelves for my books. Then the evening came and together the time for watering the garden. Before the sun went down I was also able to plant some cotton trees and squash.
Dinner is no later or earlier than nine o’clock, as usual. Rice porridge for the dinner – my favorite!
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