catherine's climate abroad: Weekend Updates

Jill told me last night that I was slacking on the blog front, so I will try to get on here more often, but things have been very busy since I’ve last written! We spent the weekend in the region of Fatick, which was a few hours drive from Dakar. It was within this region that we gave the climate services workshop to farmers from 6 villages. Even though Dakar, like all of Senegal, is located within the Sahel (a band of Africa directly south of the Sahara desert, and where my research focuses), driving out to the villages was my first real, authentic experience in the Sahel. It is a semi-arid area where the climate and climate changes are exceedingly important for its inhabitants. Rainfall only occurs during the rainy season (which is starting to begin now and will last until September usually), and even then it can vary from only 300 mm for the year to over 800 mm (these annual precipitation changes have been observed throughout the 20^th Century and their causes are still the study of many scientists, including my own work). I had read once that the Sahel is an area of contrasts and this was very true. The landscape is pretty barren, with only short grasses and shrubs, yet a few species of trees including the baobab can survive and clearly stick out due to their vast size (The baobab fruit can also be made into a filling for a cookie-sort of like a Fig Newton that I had the chance to taste and was very yummy too!). Locals drive around in anything ranging from a modern SUV to a mule-drawn cart.

Even though I’ve spent about the last two years learning about the Sahel and the importance of its precipitation variability, witnessing it firsthand was a new, indescribable feeling. It is so clear how important and useful climate information can be for the people living in the Sahel, who are mostly subsistence farmers. This is exactly what the workshop intended to do-bring together farmers to provide information about our current estimates for the monsoon onset and end date, and information about the seasonal totals. While the workshop was conducted in French and so difficult to fully understand what was going on, it was clear that the farmers were engaged and really interested in learning about the information that the Met service could provide. Another interesting aspect to learn about were all the traditional indicators that farmers use to make predictions about the upcoming rainy season-these range from noticing wind patterns changing, to the phasing of the moon, to the behavior of animals, birds and insects.

After a weekend spent outside Dakar, it was nice to return on Sunday evening. I walked around my neighborhood a bit (called Ngor, which is regarded as a traditional fishing “town”), and happily realized that there is a narrow strip of beach with a few restaurants about 2 minutes from my apartment so I enjoyed some food there. Better yet, Ngor Island, a 0.1 square kilometer island situated directly across from my local beach is only a few minutes’ pirogue (like a motorized canoe) ride away. Dakar’s “best” beaches are located here, as well as some surf schools, so I am hoping to check that out on a day off soon. I’m not entirely sure when that will happen though, as the rest of the week will be spent with work and research, and we may have a second trip to another agricultural area this weekend (plans are still a bit up in the air as of right now). If we do go though, then I will really have to make time for all the touristy things I want to do following our return as I’ve already been here a week and there is still so much to see and do!

Hope everyone is well back home. Oh, and last time I forgot to upload some pictures so here are a bunch from the first week.

-Catherine