a more productive couple of weeks

I have heard from my family that i have quite a few readers and have to admit that i am slightly nervous now to write. I want to give you some good stories and not make too many spelling errors. I am just telling it as I see it...he good and the bad.

Ok the past couple of weeks have been much more productive. To start I met with a fomer PCV who now works with Trees For the Future. He took me around to a bunch of villages and we met with some farmers and saw some of their tree work. I have to say the trip was not highly motivational. It is not easy to plant trees in a desert that is constantly being grazed by goats, sheep and cows. He was telling a story of a planting project in my village that he did early in the 2000s and there was zero survival rate of the trees. I am trying really hard to look past the tree planting part of my job because i am starting to realize that the overall success rate for trees in the desert is not so good. I will have some sucess but it will just be one more baby step towards development and environmental preservation here.

This week I also had a meeting with the womens group in my village. We sat down and had a little chat one afternoon while shelling peanuts (i can almost keep up with them now). The meeting was half a sucess and half not. Come to find out they are very interested in money (mainly how much i can hand over to them,this was the half bad part because they know i am a volunteer and i am not going to give them money...they were pushing my buttons) and coming to America(go figure they all are). Again i am trying to look past this and on to the things that i can help them with. They do want to work on a garden where they will raise veggies to sell. I can help them do this and they if is goes well they will all have a little more money. It is all about money. It sucks but i guess thats how the world works. here and in the states we base our lives around it. Here they need it more so they can feed themselves but let me tell you some times they will buy that new outfit instead of putting food in the bowl. but then again some NGO will make sure they dont starve. It is frustrating because some people here have been handed everything for their whole lives by an NGO so if they do have extra money they will buy the clothes because food will be given to them by somebody. they whole thing is very interesting but I will not babble about that anymore.

ok this week I also went to visit another PCV in his village with my dad because he is working on organizing a tree group for our locality. That was fairly good and i think could work out well if all the players stay involved. we'll see.

Ok i am running out of time but as for me I am still here. the answer to the wolof greeting Maangi fii rekk(I am here only) has more and more meening to me. I am surviving but keeping more and more busy. I am still battling with my ideas of development but have been discussing development in general with other volunteers and we all seem to have the same internal conflicts. Just taking it day by day and in baby steps. i am looking forward to traing in Feb. Ok thank you all for you support. I have gtten a bunch of packages and appreciate the american food, candies and magazines. love you!