Peter’s trip to Mauritania in December 2008

During his last trip to Mauritania this past December 2008, Peter traveled with two friends to the southern border with Senegal in search of land suitable for a Neem tree nursery and an Neem tree orchard. In the picture below you see him and his friends in a meeting with village elders, where they presented and discussed the project.

They were met with a lot of excitement and in the course of the event, while cows milk was passed around in a wooden bowl as refreshment, the piece of land  in the picture below was offered to our team. Negotiations are now under way  to use this land to plant Neem trees for JustNeem, while creating jobs and income opportunities for the village.

While on the road, they came to this village (below), where a large Neem tree has become the center of village life. What an awesome perspective to plant many more of these trees in many more Saharan Desert villages!

Our Mauritanian friend has become quite an enthusiastic Neem tree grower. We call him Johnny Appleseed, because, like him,  he takes a few Neem tree seedlings along wherever he goes and shares them with others. Watch him here plant one of them:

He first digs a hole with any tool he can find . . .

. . . then plants the Neem tree seedling and adds natural  fertilizer (camel or goat dung) . . .

. . . adds water . . .

. . . and anything available to protect the little tree from hungry goats .

In this case he found a broken bucket, knocked the bottom out and added an old spring mattress that he found in nearby bushes as additional protection. A great way of recycling .