At the end of January 2007, with the Christmas and New Year festivities long past .. I was glad to leave the dank and cold UK climate to return to the warmth of Africa. First chance I had, Lamin's taxi services were engaged and we headed off into the bush to see what had been accomplished.

Peering through the half tidied scrub of the soon to be farmed area, there it was .. not exactly the Ritz and looking tiny at first sight, it was still somewhat larger than the "wheelbarrow and a few tools" size I had originally thought I needed, before "African planning" took over .. but it was built !

Looking around, I could see that most of the outer perimeter fencing was up, which should .. with perhaps some extra tightening .. keep out the herds of village cattle that are regularly driven past on their way to their scant pastures. I was happy to see the plants, that we had planted in August the previous year, were looking healthy and a lot of the unneeded trees and bushes had been cut down.

Babucar, beaming with joy at his "new home" and the fact that only one of my plants had been lost to a renegade goat since my last visit .. was busily watering and making plans to weave the grasses stacked by the hut, to build himself an outside 'shower room'.

Although the well had been providing enough water for my plants, the depth of water was not really sufficient to safely last throughout the rest of the dry season .. another 5 months with no rain.
So, as the hut needed smartening up .. we gave Abli Zimba a call and asked him and 'the gang' to meet us to discuss rendering the outside walls and deepening the well by a couple of metres.

First sighting past the half tidied scrub which showed some new green growth of Mankanassas

Home grown grass .. ready to be woven into wall panels for Babacar's outside shower room.

With only one fatality, the rest of the fruit trees we planted in August had gained a good foothold and the ground had been nicely levelled using some of the red laterite sand dug from the well.

An extra couple of rings had been added to the top of the well .. just in case a post-midday nap, sleepy Babucar might walk straight out of the hut and disappear down an open hole ! The water butt was doing its projected job and the rudiments of the shower room on the left could be seen

The concrete-ringed top lining of the well was practical and functional, but hardly pretty.
Despite a lot of light hearted coercion, Babucar - a non swimmer - remained stubbornly reluctant to climb down to clean off the excess concrete and prune the errant plant that was growing out the earth wall .. backing away laughing whilst suggesting that Abli was far more capable !