Silvia Raßloff with her children in Gambia

In October, we (Kerstin, Tom, Sue and I) visited or accelerated our various projects in The Gambia. The biggest challenge was to buy the first orange trees. We traveled to Senegal for this. You can get orange trees with larger fruit there. We bought 120 orange trees and 10 limes and brought them to Kitty by adventurous means. Eight members of the Kitty soccer club helped us plant the trees in the garden. Several families already have vegetable patches. However, the actual division of the vegetable beds will not begin until November. At the moment, peanuts, okra, manioc, corn and other vegetables are growing. As soon as these vegetables have been harvested, the division will begin.

We also briefly visited our school project in Sangjang. After the end of the rainy season, the women start to plant new vegetable beds. Everything in the garden looks tidy. The classrooms are full and the school furniture for two of the classrooms (made in The Gambia) is ready and in use. The toilets are also finished. We have started a new project with the locksmith who made the steel structure for the water tanks for the garden project in Kitty.

Last summer we visited Mr. Fetzner from Bruchsal. He developed various stoves to save firewood. If the women use this stove instead of cooking on three stones, they can save up to 50% wood by reducing heat loss. Wood is rare and expensive. These are important aspects for us to save wood and create new jobs. We have to keep an eye on production costs, because families have to be able to buy the stoves. The locksmith understood our intention. I made a model of the stove at home and gave it to the locksmith. It was useful for the first prototype. Now the women have to cook with the stove and tell us about their experiences with it in November. Or our next travel group can cook with the oven.