Njawara - It's hot, but we like it

We've gotten ourselves quite settled here at Njawara.  The first two nights were somewhat unbearable because of the heat.  We're in a hut with a thatched roof, so to keep out the mosquitos, you have to close the door/window, but that makes the room basically a closed oven.  I woke up drenched in sweat the last two nights.  Also, because of the solar power, the fans don't work at all.  Last night I kept my window open and made sure to seal my mosquito net completely. It helped immensely with the heat.  Still swated a bit, but it was manageable.
Tonight we're starting to get a very good storm roll in, so i think it'll be plenty cool enough.  It came up in only about 30 minutes, from a clear sky to completely stormy.  I'm a little worried about the thatched roof and being water-tight... I'm hearing drops coming through... I'm goign to close up my computer adn write more when I'm certain of being dry.

Miss you all...



OK... so the storm has now passed.  it's Thursday morning here.
The Thatched roof wasn't exactly water tight lets say.  I had a number of drips that
came through the thatch, but only a few that came through the second ceiling they put in (made of old rice canvas/woven plastic bags).  All in all it was a pretty wild storm.  Megan and I went out after I turned my computer off and took some pictures.  It was good even for a storm in Canada (think the one or two really wild ones we'd have throughout the year).  The storm really helped to cool the weather down here and I actually only woke up once last night.  It feels wonderful to have a good night sleep.  The current here even on for at least 4-5 hours (the two previous nights we had 45 mins and 13 minutes respectively).  I think it's because only Megan and I are here now.  The two nights prevously there was a permanent VSO volunteer and another guest staying here.  Plus I think one might have been using a hair dryer.

But I've digressed...  We're really enjoying our time here.  It's unfortunate that the work here isn't more engineering related, because the facility is well equiped and even more well run, the people here are very nice, the local villagers have been incredibly welcoming and we've shared many laughs with them, even last night over attaya, long into the night. 

We've mostly been working in the community garden here on every day tasks.  We did get to repair a water hand pump they have here.  It had broken a few days previously and I was inspired to take something apart, so we opened it up, fixed the belt that had fallen off it's track, replaced it and watched as the water started to flow (pictures will follow when the internet allows me to upload).

Today is supposed to be chicken day.  The centre has a small chicken nursery they buy 1 day old chickens, nurse them for 1 week, then deliver them to the surrounding communities.  Megan and I are really looking forward to it.  Tomorrow we have normal work in the morning, then a chance to take a river tour up and down the river (not The Gambia River, there is a small tributary only 100 m behind the centre here.  I'm not sure the name, but will try to look it up when I post pictures).
Saturday we're going to go on a community/farm tour to see the operations of some of the graduates of NATC (Njawara Agrictultrual Training Centre), and what they have done with their training to improve the agricultural practices of the local community.  Then on Sunday we are heading back to South Bank. 

We would like to spend more time here.  I've actually gotten quite used to not having electricity. (Last night the power came on around 8, and both Megan and I barely touched it until we went to bed to charge her cell  phone and I had my fan going while I slept).  Unfortunately, it seems strange to look this far out and say we're running out of time, but we're running out of time.  We want to get back to our projects in Sanyang, as well, the other guest who was here the night before last works with a group called Concern International.  She has a contact there with some serious sounding engineering problems (how to draw water from a 30 m deep well with no electricity), and another potential contact at a government office in Brikama looking at and developing new appropriate technologies for use throughout the country.

We may be altering our schedule 3-4 more times before we actually leave here, but that's what we pretty much expected.

Ok, time to get started on my day.  I'll post more when I can.

Justin