Beekeepin

Whoa. It has been a long time since I've posted anything on here. Unfortunately I don't have much time for a full update, so I'm posting an article that I recently wrote about beekeeping for our technical exchange newsletter. Enjoy!

When approaching a beehive something in your most basic, animalistic biology tells you this isn’t good idea. Opening the lid, that voice gets louder, screaming at you to stop. It’s understandable. Bees can be dangerous. Yet even with thousands of bees around, a larger part of you, the part of you that collected bugs as a child takes over and thinks, “ Wow! This is awesome.” Somehow at that moment your fight or flight impulse disappears and all that’s left is clarity and an amazing job to do.

Yet two short years ago when applying for Peace Corps, beekeeping was the last thing I wanted to do. I’d never even been stung by a bee and couldn’t imagine any circumstance that would make opening a beehive appealing. Turns out you change your mind pretty quickly after six months of sitting at site doing nothing. Suddenly beekeeping didn’t sound like a ludicrous idea only done by people of questionable sanity. Now it was my project, my baby, and my reason for staying in Guinea.

At this point you might be thinking, “that’s all well and good for you, but why is beekeeping even important to PC Guinea?” To the skeptics out there: if your site has agriculture or any flowering plants bees play a key role in your community.  Often unseen and under-appreciated bees make sure we get to enjoy mangoes, cashews, oranges, and countless other fruits and vegetables. As Einstein famously said, “If bees let the planet, man would have 3-5 years left.”  Wow.

While bees naturally and plentifully exist in Guinea, few Guineans actually practice beekeeping. The majority of people who interact with bees do so either as honey hunters or beehavers.  Honey hunters are folks who search out naturally occurring hives and take the honey.  One step above honey hunting is beehaving—providing bees with a protective man-made structure where the colony can live but not doing any active hive management.  These hives are made from a variety of materials including woven grass, hollow tree trunks, gourds, etc.   Beehavers provide the bees protection as a means to facilitate future honey harvests.

While both practices are successful in harvesting honey, they can have detrimental impacts.  During harvest, hives are traditionally subdued by lighting a smoky fire below the hive. This calms the bees somewhat, but when the harvest is complete and angry bees are swarming, the fire may be left burning while harvesters flee to safety.  Unattended these can turn into devastatingly large brush fires.  Traditional harvesting methods may collapse entire colonies by destroying brood comb/ killing the queen or lead to bees abandoning the hive.

So now I’m sure you want to know how PCV’s can get involved.

We can assist local honey hunters and beehavers in adapting their practices to become beekeepers.  The main difference being that beekeepers possess enough understanding of bee biology and organization to work with and actively manage bees. Making the transition doesn’t require large financial investments, just training and practical application such as tweaking traditional hive designs to allow greater colony management and monitoring. For example, you might add top bars to a woven grass hive or make protective beekeeping suits from old rice sacks.

But even if getting down and dirty with bees isn’t your thing it’s still possible to work with local bee workers. Help increase honey quality and profitability by teaching local harvesters how to filter honey and recognize the differences between good and bad quality honey. If you’re feeling more ambitious, why not transform comb that would otherwise be thrown away into profit. It’s easy to purify wax and transform it into a variety of products including: candles, body butter, soap, or lip gloss. All are fun projects, great souvenirs to bring home, and possible to make with ingredients available at your local market.

Hopefully I’ve managed to convince a few of you that beekeeping would be an awesome project. If you want to learn more about bees pick up a copy of “Small-scale Beekeeping” (available at your regional house in both French and English) or feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns, or to get several GB’s of beekeeping materials. Be sure to apply to the upcoming beekeeping training, tentatively scheduled for June 16-20. Till next time, keep an eye on your local pollinators.

Back in Action

I feel like I need to start out with a big ol' apology to all of my previously-faithful blog following family and friends for falling off the bandwagon. The past few months haven't been easy ones for me at site and my access to technology minimal. Ergo, I had neither the motivation nor means to write.

I am delighted to say that is all behind me now. Things are finally picking up work-wise for me, and I couldn't be more excited about it. It's true what they say, that the days will seem to drag-on, but that suddenly you look at the calendar only to realize weeks and even months have flown by. Hard to believe I'm already over 1/3 done with my time here in Guinea, especially since it feels like my work has only just begun.

Horray for beesuits!

A traditional beekeeper w/ hive

I've been away from dear Timbi Tounni, and my beloved kitty, a lot lately, but it's been in the name of improving my skillset as a volunteer. I recently attended two Peace Corps trainings back-to-back. The first topic was Nutrition. It wasn't what I had expected as we spent most of our time discussing proper nutrition for pregant/ nursing women and small children. We had the opportunity to practice our skills by talking with mothers at the health center in Mamou about proper weaning and nutrition, and now my counterpart couldn't be more stoked about conducting sensibilizations at the Pita Centre du Sante as soon as I'm back in town.

The second training covered apiculture aka beekeeping and was more in line with my current project goals at site. I am working with the Timbi Tounni garden co-operative coordinator to form a beekeeping co-operative in Timbi Tounni and couldn't be more excited about it. Though I'll admit to being more than a little nervous about working with these popular pollinators when I signed up for the training. However, once the beesuit was on and the hive opened my anxieties seemed to dissipate. It's a pretty incredible feeling to be standing in the middle of so many bees and feel secure, akin to scuba diving except with bees instead of water.

Hopefully once I get back to site I'll be able to put this training to good use right away. My counterpart and I have already identified ten local beekeepers who are interested in joining the co-operative. You may be wondering why bother to start a co-operative if everyone is already keeping on their own. Valid question. Working together in a co-operative would enable them to try new techniques that can improve profits & harvest and be more environmentally friendly by spreading the risk across all members of the co-operative. It will also decrease costs by allowing them to share equipment like smokers and bee suits. Here's hoping that I'll be able to make these dreams into a reality in the not-so-distant future!

My other recent project ideas include refurbishing our local basketball court and hosting sports camps for the youth, starting an environmental club at the local middle school, conducting local biological surveys of flora and fauna (esp. frogs & toads!), and helping a local NGO get off the ground. Over and out for now, but keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have exciting news to share next time I see a keyboard.


Kamsar port



Inside the hive

A nalle e jam? (How's your day going?)

Being a Peace Corps volunteer, what in the world does that actually entail? Are you having fun in Guinea? What are you going to do for two years? I'll admit that many days I don't seem to know the answers to those questions myself.

HOWEVER--

I thought that today I could give you a brief glimpse into what a typical day for me might look like. Let's go for a ride, shall we? 

Baby chickens!

Most mornings I get up around 7:00 or 7:30. No need for alarm clocks since I have a remarkably playful kitten and an eastern-facing window-- not to mention a four-year old brother who's favorite morning activity is usually yelling.  As I pull back my mosquito net and search for where Bobo (that's my new kitty) has hidden my flip-flops I can hear roosters greeting the morning, the rhythmic bom-bom bom-bom of women all round Timbi Tounni pounding rice, hot peppers, leafs, anything really in their piles. If I get up early enough I can hear the call to prayer from the grande mosque on the other side of the main road. Though admittedly that's not usually a happy day since the first call comes at 6:00 or earlier.

Lil' sister and Bobo

For the next few hours I embrace a spending a little time on my lonesome. After putting on water to boil for my tasty pot-o-oatmeal and mug of tea I take a mental break from being in Guinea to do some yoga. (An absolute necessity with a lumpy bed and tiny milking stools for chairs. No ergonomics here!)  A major benefit of living in a one-room house is that it's easy to watch things bubbling on the stove while I'm in the bedroom! Once I'm all stretched out and in good working order for the day, I settle in for breakfast and some letter writing or book reading. Then there's the fun of washing dishes, always battling the chickens to get my job done and keep the dishes clean. It's become so important for me to follow a routine each morning, to slowly but surely create something reassuring and regular in this often unfamiliar place.

After my morning ritual is when the really fun starts. So many options, so little time. For being a place without many American amenities, it might seem strange that I'm not bored and feel I don't have enough time, but truly I do. Some mornings I head off to the weekly market to stock up on fresh produce for the coming days-- mangoes, avocados, and peanut butter galore.  Others I meet with local gardening groupements to discuss their current practices & challenges and garner insight into how I can best aid my community, bicycle through town and salue everyone I know (a BIG part of the first 3 months in Peace Corps), attend random trainings and community events (literacy training, glasses distribution, etc.), or undertake the ever challenging tast of washing my laundry. As a fun side note: running water is what I miss most in Guinea. Not showers, but the simple luxury of not having to tote all my water in jugs across the town or walk to the stream on the edge of town to do my laundry.

Anyways. I digress. After all of those morning delights comes lunch! Always a reason to rejoice. Often I cook for myself in my lil' kitchen. Common meals include spaghetti, stir fry, egg sandwiches, or pancakes. But the possibilities are pretty wide. Made some pretty tasty peanut brittle and tomato soup the other day. Though I'll admit that my cooking space is a bit more cramped than I'm used to (see above). When I don't feel like cooking there's always somebody who's more than happy to invite me over for rice and sauce or I can buy keke, rice and sauce, and other tasty treats in town.

By this time. The sun is HOT! It's generally accepted to be the hours of repose here between 2 and 5 or so. During those hours you can usually find me chilling out at my house: writing letters, reading, playing with Bobo, doing projects around the house or garden, hanging out with petities, or napping. All activities always accompanied by glorious music, BBC, or This American Life (and the roosters and sheep bleating).  Some afternoons I pass the time visiting my friends & family, teaching an after-school English course, or exploring the wild lands and forests surrounding Timbi Tounni. Then again there's always the fun of getting pump water.

At 5:00 comes another call for prayer. And as many people head to the grande mosque for prayer I often go to the trails and forest not far from my house to find some mental solace of my own. Going up and down those hills, like so so many before them, brings such peace to my soul-- even if it's followed by five petites who decided to join.

In the final hours of daylight, it's dish washed, bathing, and maybe a little frisbee playing before the cockroaches and ants come out for the evening. Another day in Guinea comes to a close with some more BBC, journaling, and phone chatting. And, of course, there's always the pure joy of collapsing back into my bed for some well deserved rest and sweet dreams.

Thanks for joining me for the atypical that has become my new normal here in Guinea. It never fails to amaze me just how quickly that definition can change!