As some of you may know, my village has requested that I apply for a grant funded by the American Embassy to build a poultry farm. The poultry farm will house a maximum of 250 chickens which will be sold for income generation. The Village Development Committee (VDC) plans to use the money to fund short-term loans for community members as well as to fund community projects. If accepted, we will hear from the Embassy anytime between September and December, and funds will be distributed in January.
Writing a Grant with Africans is NOT Easy
The process to get the necessary information to write this proposal was difficult. To begin with, the VDC is only focused on getting the money to build the poultry farm and NOT interested in the steps that must be taken to get the money. They want the money that will be generated by this project but do not want to do the work to keep the project going. Thankfully, I have found a great counterpart for this project, Suwandi Jatta. Suwandi Jatta (more commonly known as Danjang Jatta) is who will be the project manager for this poultry farm. He attended training at the Njawara Agricultural Training Center for 9 months in 2007 where he learned poultry farming, animal husbandry, gardening, and bee-keeping. He lives in my village, is a hard worker, and I believe will do a great job at supervising this project, making it as sustainable as possible. So we will see what happens! The grant is submitted. I will keep you all updated in 6 months or so!
Senegal Here I Come!!!! ....So I Thought...
Last Sunday I loaded a gelly gelly with my Danjang Jatta, headed North to Senegal. I was super excited about the opportunity to go to another country. To even be able to take this international trip I had to contact my program manager who contacted the safety and security manager and the country director. Saturday (the day before the trip) I received the necessary permission for all of the above. As we rode in gelly gelly, Danjang told me the route we were going to take, which was different than what I was expecting, but he had been there before, so I was not worried. We got off in Kerewan and Danjang pointed at a sign saying "This is where we are going." The sign said, Njawara Agricultural Training Center. I sat on the bench, staring at the sign in bewilderment, as he went into the store to buy credit for his phone. When he got out, I asked him, "So, how far is Kaolack, Senegal from here?" His response, "Oh, too far." "Sooo, we are not going to Kaolack?" He replied, "No, the border is very difficult to cross and Njawara Agricultural Training Center will be the one to go to Kaolack, transport the chicks across the border, and to us. Don't you remember me telling you we were going here?" What could I say? Clearly, there was a misunderstanding. As he called his contact at the center I sat there, bummed, disappointed, but glad that this trip was still going to be productive. At least we were going to be seeing people who would help us plan the poultry farm. And at the same time we could see several poultry farms within the center to get ideas for what to include in our own. As we began the 10K walk toward Njawara (because of lack of transport) I couldn't help but shake my head, chuckle a bit, and say, "This is Africa..."
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