Bees, beds, books and babies - an update on our current volunteers ..... This week’s volunteers have been working hard on a wide range of activities that handily mostly start with ‘b’. Ivor and Phil (beekeepers from the Midlands who helped us set up the WYCE bee farm) have been working with Yankuba to maintain the hives, equipment and grounds, and get ready for our first honey harvest of the year (usually 3 a year in Jan, March and May). They’ve also been out and about visiting other bee farms in the area to see how they work and seeing if we can work together. Phil and Bernard have been working with Omar and Musa on creating beds and planting more seeds for use in the lodge kitchen, and getting the school veg garden back in shape so that we can grow fresh veg for the school lunches. We’re also making sure that plans are in place for the children to take responsibility for tending the garden (linking to their school curriculum). Abbey has been making great progress in the library – she’s sorted through our store of books, moved the useable ones to the library, organised them all, improvised book-ends and made lots and lots of labels. She’s been working with small groups of children in the library to improve their reading skills, comprehension and pronunciation. Lettie, June and Wendy have been working at the health clinic, and involved in our discussions about developing and expanding the facilities. Top priority just now is to see whether we can provide Malaria testing and treatment as well as our malaria prevention work – this horrible disease claims far too many lives every year. They’ve worked with village leaders to ensure the fair distribution of donated baby/children’s clothes, and also went to the first meetings of the mother and toddlers group - very well attended and lively sessions! This week saw the first honey harvest of the season. Phil, Ivor, June, Abbey and Yankuba worked late in the evening to gather honeycombs, and we enjoyed the very first taste with our breakfast the next morning. Bob has joined WYCE team in the UK and when he gets back home will be focusing on fundraising and bid-writing. During his time here, he’s been meeting the Gambian team and spending time getting to know first-hand what WYCE does and how we work. … and on Sunday afternoon we took a few hours off to do some birdwatching. https://facebook/media/set/?set=a.688902964478025.1073741835.159164437451883&type=3
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:40:38 +0000
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