It has been a while since I was writing this Blog but I have enough reasons for this, one was a flue that made me speechless for a week. In the mean time a lot has happened again.
I met with Jaco, in Gambia known as DJ Owl. He works for West Coast Radio and he is willing to help with the Jatropha project in Gambia. He is even thinking on growing Jatropha in his own country Cameroon. In our meeting we discussed the possibilities using the radio for the publicity campaign and we were thinking of a Tabanane-song. Jaco is going to contact production companies to try to find out about the costs of small promotion movies that can be shown on GRTS, the Gambia Radio and Television Studio for a period of 2 month. I have to call him back to know all he found out in the mean time.
Kemo of GREG has also been working hard in the mean time and he came back to me with some very good news. He had meeting with the Energy Department and they are supporting Jatropha in Gambia. The proposal Kemo and me have been putting together needs a few changes before it can be handed over to the Secretary General in the Statehouse. Kemo is working hard on the proposal and he expressed his happiness about the positive reactions from the Energy department. This is the good news we are waiting for.
My Jatropha plants in the garden are coming up very powerfull and look healthy and strong. 
I received an e-mail from the Dutch University of Agriculture in Wageningen asking me if I would like to help them with researching the Jatropha variety’s and of course I like that. Working on projects like this is also opening doors to new knowledge, and I like that more then anything. I will keep on writing about my findings with them.
Another nice meeting last week was with Ebrima D. Savage and his wife. He found the website and called to meet us. It was wonderful to meet this nice Gambian couple and introduce the Jatropha to them. Both are true Jatropha ambassadors now and Ebrima wants to concentrate on the Gambia North-bank area. He came in with the idea of paying those who are committed to growing Jatropha in their area a small amount until they will have an income from the seeds itself…… again a great initiative. He promissed me that he will keep me up to date with his good work.
I hope to receive the letter with the blessings for the project from the Gambia Gouvernment soon. A letter like this will make life much easier for all the ‘ambassadors’ to convince all Gambian people to start growing as much Jatropha as they can this year….!
