Chapter 7: Gardening

As an environment volunteer in Mali, my primary role was helping our local rice group with their crop production. Because we were evacuated, I never got a chance to help them with that, but we were able to help them work in their community gardens. 

What you do in Mali changes based on the season because of the weather and resource constraints. There are three main seasons: the rainy-hot season from around June-September, the dry-cold season from October-February, and the dry-hot season from February to May. You'll notice that for a majority of the year, there's little to no rainfall; when the rains do come, people have to make the most of them to survive. Beginning in late May, they are usually preparing their fields for planting corn, millet, sorghum, peanuts, or rice. Thus, during the cold season, people start small gardens to supplement their diets. So how do you grow veggies in dry season? Here's how. 

Chapter 6: Market Day

Now that you've seen Niena, especially the aerial view, you can tell it's pretty big for a village. We had roughly 10,000 people (we think), and one of the best markets around! I wish we had gotten a picture of the market empty, because it's so big and deserted it's creepy. But alas, I can only bring you pictures from a Sunday market day. Welcome to Niena's market (entrance below)!