On to MyFarm—what a fascinating place! Lucas, the director & the guy I'd communicated with, met us and gave us a grand tour. We could scarcely keep up with all the projects/activities currently active here: micro gardening; hydroponics; raising chickens, ducks, rabbits & pigs; fish ponds; mulch bins; solar oven; solar drying oven; soap, lotions, tea, jam & honey processing; bee hives; AND computer lab; literacy, numeric, science & creativity labs! And they are still building a complex to house occupational labs which probably will be for construction & mechanic plus a couple more. Everywhere are small plots of growing trees & plants with signs explaining possible use. So much happening in this compound! School groups come for tours and it is open for drop in students all day. Since many students only go to school half time, many come here the other half.
The volunteer housing was much nicer than we expected! It's only 7 months old. We have a large room & our own bathroom. No hot water but hey, at least running water. There's a big kitchen with a frig, gas stove & water filter and a dining/living room area. Helena, Karl & his sister, Ingrid are our housemates. They are all from the town in Norway which is the home of the founder of AfricaStart Up (MyFarm is one of their programs). Karl has been here since September & is the handy man here around here. Helena has been here about a week and worked for the foundation in Norway so she knows a lot the workings. Ingrid arrived shortly after us. Karl suggested we order pizza. He has discovered a place that delivers delicious pizzas. Jackpot! We chatted & feasted on delicious Hawaiian pizza till almost 11.
Next morning we climbed into a refurbished fire truck around 9:30 and drove about an hour to a school. Heavy tables, benches and mats were unloaded and set up. Lots of different activities were set out: A table for: puzzles, & logic games; robo blocks; paper & colored pencils; and paints for face painting. A mat was used for large legos and another for iPads that were already programmed & firmly built into a small table. Rog & I worked at the puzzle & logic games table. After about 2 hours, kids got an orange drink, we put away the activities & a MyFarm teacher did a whole group lesson about micro farming & hydroponics. He showed them a table filled with only peanut shucks where lots of healthy lettuce was growing. He then showed them a bucket sawed in half, filled with water with a styrofoam blocks where small holes contained mint plants were growing well. He explained these both could be grow lots of food without much land. All using recycled materials! The kids were very attentive. Finally, a circle was formed & 6 chairs put in the center. 7 kids were chosen and DJ Karl started the music for musical chairs. After someone won, the game was played 2 more times. A bit after 2, we got in Karl's car so we could stop to get veges & fruit land also go to a grocery store. We got eggs, tuna, cheese, crackers, cereal & Diet Coke!!! Lunch is provided so now we have breakfast & dinner for quite a while. Quiet evening for us & a night out for our young Norwegian mates.
Next day I spent the morning helping organize the activities we used yesterday. In the afternoon, I joined the creative arts class or younger kids. Not much was happening & since I'd found lots of stickers in the morning, I told the kids to draw a palace to put the stickers in. They were on it! Rog spent the day helping Karl built a holder for trash bins. Good day. Saturday we went for a walk in a nearby park with Lucas. He has been so welcoming & asking us for ideas as he's always wanting to improve. Such an upbeat guy! He's been coming to Gambia most of his life because his Gambian mom has family here. When we got back, Rog spent hours watering while I worked on cleaning & organizing book shelves. Dust here is horrid & obviously kids had rummaged through the books. I got 4 done & 3 to go. Karl & Ingrid's parent arrived around 7. His dad was bursting with pride that both his kids are here volunteering!! Rightly so!
