Bumper crop

Late last night I had to ask my roommate Morlue to borrow my headphones as he was listening for hours to a music DVD that sounded like endless lift or hotel reception music. It didn't hold much appeal.

At 6.30am gospel music rung out as Morlue's alarm tone. 'Rob. Robbb. Oh, you're still sleeping.'

The day was useful as we visited the nearby demonstration site where five weeks earlier we mucked in to weed some okra where we were experimenting with mulching as a conservation agriculture technique. Fantastic to see the smiles on the faces of the farmers, happy that they'd learnt a new technique that seemed to be producing good quantities in a short time period; better than they've been doing traditionally, they said. Here is one of the ladies puzzled over the size of this eddo plant, which dwarfed its neighbours, also on a plot where we've been trialling new techniques.

During downtime today, conversations ranged from the rise of populism in Gambia, concerns over growing censorship of the press in Liberia and a video of Morlue's one-year old daughter fighting with her own shadow. When I suggested playing some music, Morlue wanted Westlife. I asked the team why Westlife are so widely adored in Africa, by all ages and genders. 'Westlife? I love those guys,' said Andrew as he lamented their demise.