As there seems to be a lack of work at my site (rather lack of work with my organization because they cease to exist… and I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out what to do and find other work at my site) I have been teaming up with other volunteers giving technical training for a hands-on approach of learning different task, skills that we didn’t learn in our pre service training. The first training that I gave in conjunction with one other volunteer was building animal cages, hutches, and coups. And we just gave our second training … a training on planting and learning the benefits of a tropical erosion grass called vetiver.

Vetiver is a tropical, erosion grass (I know it would be amazing to plant in some of the mud slide areas in CO… but it doesn’t like the cold) that came to us from South Africa. It has a root system that goes as deep as 30 feet, and the grass extending a few feet high. The roots not only suck up any stand still water, cleaning up cesspools around bath houses, and behind latrines, but the grass stops the top soil from slipping away in a torrential down pour. Vetiver can be planted on steep slopes to prevent the slope from slipping away, it can be planted along culverts to prevent further erosion, and it can be planted along the base of buildings that don’t have a rain water catch system to save the foundation of the building. The snakes don’t like it, and the goats love it. The actual grass is strong enough that baskets and other crafts can be woven from it, and lets not forget that the grass actually looks pretty.

The training took place in the Northern Region of Ghana, just outside of Tamale in a traditional, farming village called Nwodua… and when I say a traditional village I mean mud huts, with thatch roofs (I think what all of envisioned we would be living in when we signed up for Peace Corps Africa). August 12th, and 13th, 6 volunteers with counterparts, 3 trainers, and 18 new Natural Resource Management trainees, as well as 10 participants from the village gathered to learn and plant this grass throughout the village. We were lucky enough to have 8 resource people to assist us with this training and provide us with vetiver grass.

We lined rice patties with vetiver, we lined a mud hut compound with vetiver, and we planted vetiver at the base of a bathhouse and behind a latrine all the while CBS was filming us and interviewing a few of the participants (yes I got interviewed by CBS… and I pray that they edit me from what they air) for a morning show clipping on 50 years of Peace Corps Ghana (I believe that it will be shown either Sunday the 28th or Tuesday the 30th on the Morning Show of CBS).

On the second day we talked about contouring the grass to prevent culvert erosion, but unfortunately got rained out from planting it where the culvert in this traditional village was taking over.

It was great putting this training together, and seeing the Ghanaians come together and learn about a grass that they didn’t know existed. Teaching PCV’s and counterparts a way to save topsoil, and clean up the mosquito breading areas at the base of bathhouses. It was great to teach the new NRM trainees about different projects that they can do in their village as soon as the get to site.