Day 5
8.5.2017
We woke up Tuesday morning intending to pack as much in as possible before we head back to Dakar. It started raining for the first time in months at about 7:00am.
The rain started coming down harder and at 8:15am.
I was feeling very conflicted about having to leave because I knew that we wouldn’t be able to finish the fence and that the greenhouse still needed the ends put on. I had looked at the instructions for the hundredth time the night before but could not make sense of some of the diagrams, so I was doubting my ability to get an end up before we left for Dakar.
I heard Bado arriving in the truck on the beach at 10:00am, and heard it stall in the sand on the hill up to the Hotel. I watched through the trees as Bado dug the wheels deeper in the sand and the rain came harder still.
The truck was sunk almost to the running boards. We started digging out the wet sand from the wheels with our hands and feet.
We dug for 10 minutes and I kicked all of the wet sand from the treads. Still no movement.
We tried several times to move it, but to no avail.
After two more attempts, I walked back up the hill to the Australian pines that flank the beech. I grabbed a large branch that had broken off one the trees and some old bamboo-type poles lying in the needles. I dragged it through the sand to the truck and Bado, knowing my intention, started right in breaking apart the branch and stuffing the pieces under the tires.
The rain was still driving hard when we got in the truck and drove the mile on the beach to Lompoul.
When we got to the farm, no one was around and the doors were locked. So we waited up on the roof of the chicken house for Barama, the farm manager, to arrive.
The second of two shipments of sustainable farming equipment has arrived in Senegal! And Our Farm In A Box Program Manager Chris Newhouse is hard at work with Gorgui Dieng of the Minnesota Timberwolves to expand access to health in the player’s home country. This journal entry is part of a series that depicts Chris’s personal experiences as MATTER and the Gorgui Dieng Foundation dig in and begin to start constructing a demonstration farm for sustainable agriculture outside of Kebemer. The project will save lives, improve community livelihood, and help build a sustainable future for Senegal.
