I'm back in Kombo to do in-service training, and I have to say that so far this has been some of the coolest technical training Peace Corps has given me.
Yesterday we learned to process honey and wax (this is awesome because it's fun and you get to keep your end results), and also how to weave grass hives (I'm a natural, if you were wondering).
Once it got dark, we put on our bee costumes and tramped into the apiary. We were at an organization called Siffoe Beekeeping Association that kept their bees in a cashew grove in what kind of looked like bee prison, with about 30 hives locked up in a long row building with a barred front. I worked on hive 26. It was hot and sweaty, and I managed to accumulate a pretty impressive helmet of bees (I am chalking this up to the fact that whoever wore this bee suit before me was definitely wearing cologne). Being out there with african killer bees is pretty exhilerating though. We probably worked on our hive for about two hours, cutting through cross combing, taking out old hive and capped honey, and just investigating the world of the bees. I was also impressed because in the Gambia most of the bee keepers I've met so far have been men, but one of the people from Siffoe in my group was a woman. It's nice to see gener empowerment in the Gambia.
After closing back up the hive, we took our big buckets of honey comb and just kind of wandered in the forest in the dark for a while trying to get all the bees off our suits. This takes a long time. I learned my lesson last time I went beekeeping and got stung twice while taking off my suit. Patience. Patience. This time I am proud to say I was sting-free. I just loved the bees.
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3 comments:
I am sooo jealous. When you come back stateside, will you help me get some hives established? I got to handle bees last month and it was so very cool.
so cool! and delicious, i bet.
Hi Annie,
It sounds like you are having a really cool time.
Love,
Hannah and Sue
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