Up Country Trekking

The whole time I’ve been here there’s been a rumor of  a forestry worker in the town 3k from me. 

I finally met that man when Chinese and I sold Fatou’s groundnuts in December.  Kemo Kinteh is the community forester in Bakadaji.  He’s been working in the area for the last three years, but we’ve never crossed paths.

When my schedule cleared up in February I got the opportunity to go on trek with a team from Forestry doing the national forestry assessment. The inventory is a legitimate study, with quantifiable results and gathers useful information about the natural resources and the human interactions of the country. The inventory team is made up of experienced foresters and natural resource specialists, and a driver; 5 men in all, including Kemo.  (and a few other foresters we picked up on the way)

It was a great experience. I got to visit the extreme east end of the country- Fatoto and Wuli district, east of Basse. I had never been there before and we crisscrossed the Gambia (admittedly only 20 k or so wide…) staying in villages every night with different families.

Every village we went to was amazingly kind and generous. They loved that I can speak Mandinka. If I had had this experience a year ago it would have been overwhelming and not very fun, but now that I can speak with people and understand the culture somewhat, it was fun and only a little overwhelming.  I spent two nights in Ceesay Kunda with a 16 year old in a bed, and the mom and 4 kids on the floor. Nene, the 16 year old, braided my hair after we got back from the field.  The forestry guys loved my new style. 

We stayed in a Fula village with electricity that had never had a white person visit.  (Too bad I don’t speak Fula)

During the mornings we headed out to the bush were our pre-determined points. The National Forest Inventory set out survey plots every 9 km across the entire country. Using a GPS receiver we locate the points and conduct a series of surveys, including tree species along a tract and land use and land cover changes.  (Hooray! Science! Quantifiable data! Meaningful results!) We also conducted household surveys within a 1km radius of the plot center.

We spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out if one of the plots was in Senegal or The Gambia. Turns out it was almost entirely in Senegal.

We picked up my friend Julia in Fatoto and she came on trek with us for a few days.

The team completed 5 plots over about 7 days and returned to Basse to complete paperwork and tie up lose ends.   

Which leads into the next story…