20. Tour de Guineas

Upon finishing my two year Peace Corps service in November 2015, I went on a bike trip through Guinea Bissau and Guinea with a fellow volunteer, Dan. This trip took us to lost islands off the coast of Guinea Bissau, and up into the remote Futa Jallon mountains of northern Guinea. It's a trip I'd been thinking about and researching for much of my service, and its hard to believe all the things I got to see.

We travelled through and stayed in towns and villages far more remote, and much poorer than those I visited in Senegal. Some communities had been affected by the Ebola crisis in 2014 and earlier in 2015. Some were home to tiny ethnic groups. All were welcoming and beautiful. Enjoy!

https://jason-andrews.travelmap.net

Update March 24, 2017.
I got into contact with the folks who run the TravelMap blog, and they encouraged me to write an introduction essay to my travel blog, for their home site blog.

Here is that essay: https://travelmap.net/blog/tour-de-guineas/

19. Bamboo Training in Sinthou Roudji

Mamadou Sow is an artisanal bamboo furniture maker. He lives in a small Pulaar village called Sinthou Roudji in the Region of Kédougou, in Southeastern Senegal. 

Although he was never able to finish high school, Mamadou's talent and ambition for his trade have given him the opportunity to study Bamboo carpentry and furniture-making in many different parts of West Africa, and with several western NGOs. He has for many years been the only master artisan bamboo furniture maker in the region of Kédougou. This is him meeting with a Minister of Trade and Commerce at the annual Foyer International de Dakar. (International Dakar Trade Fair.)

Through his years of working with Bamboo in the region of Kédougou, Mamadou has become acutely aware of a troubling fact: Bamboo is being harvested at a rate that far outstrips the natural rate of regeneration, and is becoming increasingly scarce in areas where people need it for many basic functions in daily life. 

Mamadou has been working closely with Peace Corps Volunteer Jason Andrews (Ag, 2013-2015) to educate villagers in Kédougou about the dangers of over-harvesting Bamboo.

Togther, Sow and Andrews have created a bamboo woodlot on land owned by Sow, in his Home village of Sinthou Roudji. The site serves as a community demonstration site for proper bamboo propagation technique.  On November 4th 2015, they put on a community training at the site, in order to instruct and demonstrate to villagers how to propagate, manage, and eventually make money from bamboo.

The audience was mostly comprised of local villagers, who constitute an important audience for basic facts about bamboo propagation and management, since a paucity of bamboo is already having an adverse effect on their livelihoods.

In Kédougou, as in most of Senegal, Bamboo is used for a huge variety of purposes. Fences, roofs, tools, furniture, and bridges are just a few examples of common uses for bamboo. Pictured here is a bamboo desk set made by Mr. Sow.

 As visual demonstrations for the training, Andrews and Sow gathered/prepared examples of each of the three methods of propagating bamboo: seed, cutting, and rootstock node.

Instruction began with a general overview of bamboo in west Africa, focusing particularly on it's rapid disappearance, then moved into specifics on how it can, and needs to be be cultivated and harvested sustainably.

Besides being instructional, the training day also served as an opportunity for villagers to get together and discuss their own concerns about declining bamboo availability, as well their experiences cultivating it. 

There are two species of bamboo native to West Africa: Arundinaria alpina, and Oxytenanthera Abyssinica. Many residents of Sinthou Roudji had spent extended periods of time in Guinea, where an introduced variety of bamboo, Bambusa vulgaris, (Chinese bamboo) also grows extensively. Kédougou, like most of Senegal, is too dry to grow Bambusa vulgaris without special care and watering.  

Musa Touré (Center), an officer of the Bureau de Developement Rurale (Office of rural development) was present, and stressed to the attendees the potential profitability of making things out of bamboo. Bamboo products, such as fencing, tools and support beams, can provide much needed supplemental income to rural villages, as long as the bamboo stands are properly managed.

Mamadou Sow's wife Jeneba Bâ (in purple, seated) headed the effort to cook a delicious meal for the training, despite being out in the bush, in the site of the woodlot.

Mamadou Sow points out a young bamboo shoot, growing from a root node planted several months ago in his woodlot. If the proper techniques are employed, it is not difficult to cultivate bamboo, like any other crop or tree.

At the end of the training, Sow and Andrews distributed at least one root stock cuttings to every household in attendance so that they could plant it as a doorstop plant and eventually harvest it without having to go into the bush.