Mangos are here! Rains are coming!

Well, I guess it has been quite awhile since I've updated this. Hope you haven't forgetten about me back home! I've eaten so many mangos in the past 2 months I couldn't even count them. They are everywhere and cheap and so goooood. Watermelons in a few months!
It has rained twice in my village already and everyone has gone to the fields to plant cous, corn, and peanuts. Right now is the start of the "hungry season" as all the food stores from last season are starting to run out and people don't have enough money to buy food. It's also the time of year when there is a big spike in the number of malaria cases in the region. I've got my Mefloquine, mosquito net, and bug spray all in place!
I've been working on continuing the soybean project that was started by Peace Corps last year. The original batch of beans was shipped here from the US and distributed among a bunch of schools throughout the country. Each school got 20kg of seed with the idea being that after they harvested they would have to give 20kg back to PC and would get to eat/sell whatever else they had on top of that. Well, there were 4 schools in my area that reported fairly decent harvests but it turns out that they ate ALL the beans they harvested, including that 20kg. Now we are having a horrible time tracking down seeds to plant this year. I finally found a school up near Basse that didn't eat the beans and was willing to give me 20kg. I spent 8 hours in a gelegele to get them but then I had to go to Kombo the next day for an infection on my leg so the beans are with the Divisional Livestock Officer for my region. Hopefully they will get distributed while I'm stuck here waiting for this festering wound to heal! (It is said to resemble an infection caused by a burrowing insect and I had to have it drained. Gross. I'll try to post a picture sometime.)
I've been continuing to advise my host family on their poultry project. The main area of concern was the chicken feed which my host brother insists on making himself. I was having trouble convincing him of the importance of fish and oyster shells in layer feed. He said it was too expensive but his birds were producing at less than a quarter of the rate they should be and the egg quality was very poor. Well, the Divional Livestock Officer came to my village to make feed and told him he either needs to make the feed correctly or take all his birds to the bush and burn them and stop doing poultry. I think he was really offended but now he listens to me. :)
I've started doing basic Wolof literacy classes in my village and its harder than I thought it would be. I've never really taught before and it is hard to know what the most effect ways are in going about it. Some of the women pick up things really quickly and some just don't seem to get it at all. That also makes it harder. I don't want them to get frustrated and give up.
I'll be in Kombo for at least the next week for PC meetings and until this gaping hole in my leg heals....so email me and I'll write back!
I miss you all!

Love,
Mandy