After the luxury of a beach holiday in Cape Point we went to work on ‘My Farm’. My Farm is an NGO which aims to work alongside the local community sharing knowledge about sustainable farming and encouraging enterprise. Even though it was only a few kilometers away, the farm felt like it was in a completely different place. Off the main road down a ridiculously rutted track, that only allows for walking or 4×4’s in the rainy season, and through mango orchards you reach the farm.
We arrived at night when the darkness made it seem like we were deep in the uninhabited bush. Crickets, frogs and the chattering leaves added to the alien environment making us wonder what was out to get us if we ventured to the toilet. In the light of day our imaginations seemed ridiculous. My Farm is a beautifully maintained place next to the rural village of Nema Kunku. The permanent staff live in round houses with grass thatched roofs that sit comfortably within the productive landscape.
Paths lined with lemon grass, hibiscus and flowering cactus wind through mango, moringa and eucalyptus trees. Wherever the sun reaches the ground, neat beds of onions, cabbages, leeks and other vegetables are growing. A greenhouse with tomatoes and different types of lettuce is opposite the communal meeting house/office/shop. The farm is off the grid generating all their power from solar panels that soak up the sun next to the banana grove. This is a really efficient source of renewable energy here, and works much better than the mains which suffer regular power cuts. Solar cookers add to the farms efficiency. Huge reflective satellite like dishes generate enough heat to set a leaf alight in seconds making boiling water easy.
They also use solar ovens which catch and reflect the suns rays inside a closed foil lined box, for roasting and baking. For example homemade hobnobs uummm! My Farm offers training in gardening, as well as soap and candle making, with the intention that people will start their own small businesses and share their new knowledge with their communities. Although not fully established or making honey yet, they have a number of bee hives which will provide the resources for the products in the future. As well as organised training sessions there is also a drop in centre for local village boys who do not attend school. Girls unfortunately very rarely attend as they are kept at home to help with domestic chores.
The concept behind the farm seemed really interesting especially as we had no idea of its community based work before we arrived. We had been kindly invited to stay by our friend Sam, whose parents until recently managed the farm. He gave us his lovely glamping (glamorous camping) tent to sleep in and the family welcomed us warmly into their roundhouse for drinks and chats late into the night. There is a lot of freedom to life here, everybody spends all day outdoors and the kids (Sam’s younger brother and sister) are allowed to wander as they will. Even though life here is virtually idyllic the family have found it hard to integrate here, and it has taken them a while to find a place within the community.
My Farm however is now well known, however we have seen how breaking through the toubab (foreigner) barrier is not easy. Sam’s siblings are still shouted at and grabbed on their way to the local school. Village life looks hard. Very poor neighbourhoods covered in rubbish surround the tranquillity of the farm. Many parents cannot afford to send their children to school as jobs are scarce and opportunities few, making looking to the future impossible. This is where My Farm are meant to step in, everyone working here is extremely experienced in their field, however even though there is so much knowledge on the villager’s doorstep it does not seem to be filtering through. Two habitations sit side by side polarised in their functionality. Plastic drinking bags carpet the village as ugly waste but are recycled on the farm as planters for valuable crops. If the barriers between the two ways of life could be broken down then there would be the opportunity for change to take place.
At times we found working on the farm frustrating, although we were only here for a week and couldn’t hope to achieve much, it was hard to get involved due to the confusion of the NGO’s aims. Unfortunately we did not get to see any of the organised training programmes however we were directed to help with the drop in boys. It is unclear whether the purpose for the drop in boys is teaching English and maths or providing a place to play or installing the concepts of market gardening and enterprise. Â Five iPads in the classroom distract from attempts to teach, yet the children do not seem to understand how to use them, wasting days tapping a touchscreen without any result.
One thing we really enjoyed on the farm was a geography lesson with the children under the shade of the trees. Using a map of Africa and a map of the world we located The Gambia and discussed different places and cultures. The lesson got difficult when we were talking about the origins of man in East Africa and the children happily supplied the names Adam and Eve. Sorry Lucy!! We were both foolish to forget the part that religion plays here. After the lesson, we taught the children the international joy of the game ‘duck duck goose’ or ‘Senegal Senegal Gambia’ as we renamed it, which quickly became a new favourite.
The nature of the drop in aspect of the farm is inherently difficult as all the boys are different ages, speak different languages and come in or not at different times. This makes planning and organisation very difficult. Once however you start something with a small group everybody wants to be involved and it is clear how eager they are to learn.
My Farm are currently building a new classroom as well as creating a garden for the boys which seems like a good step forward. My Farm is a beautiful environment and it was a pleasure to stay here however it illustrated to us how difficult starting an NGO in another country is, especially when the director lives in another country. The concept of creating new and different opportunities for people is really important, especially here. We hope they can reach the people they want to help and succeed in sharing their plentiful knowledge and experience.
