So we have been in Gambia for more than two weeks now and we are starting to get a feel of how things work around here. The pace of life and work is much more relaxed than back home. At the ministry of agriculture, the first couple hours of the day are very slow with plenty of socializing. It seems people are more concerned about each other than getting a quick start to the day. There is a lot of waiting around which takes some getting used to.
The first two weeks of work have been orientation. We have been all over the country on the North and South banks. The ministry of agriculture has a lot of interesting projects on the go, almost all to do with water management.
A lot of the problems we have seen are due to less rain fall each year. Some rice farmers need embankments to retain water in their fields because there ins't enough anymore. Less rainfall also means that salt water creeps further and further up the River Gambia. Salt and farming dont mix well so many fields can no longer be farmed. So there are projects to keep the salt out before this happens as well as projects to relcaim land that has become salinated.
Erosion is another problem. We have seen roads that have become river beds, eroded around 1 metre down from their original levels. Dykes are used to divert water away from villages and into the river valleys.
So far we have just been given the tour around different project sites. Now we have 2 weeks of class. So I'm hoping the real work starts after that.
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