Proof of rain

Intermediate Egret, Niger
Photo by Ulf Liedén

06/07/08
Yesterday I walked out to see the lake--from afar it even looked blueish--and there were dozens of white egrets on the far shore. Up close the water is clouded and brown, and its shores are gouged out in pockets where men have cut out clay to make bricks, but it is a lake nonetheless. Small, oddly-shaped, but proof that rain came. I approached the edge and caught a quick glimpse of a turtle(!) who plopped into the mud, safe. That was COOL. I haven't seen any turtles. Maybe he is the only one. Where has he been since last year when the rains stopped?

Birds

Geese flying over Nigeria, not far from the Konni region of Niger
Photo by P. Taylor

Other signs that the rains have come: birds! Small flocks of little red and brown finch-like songbirds flush out of my pigeons' house when I pass; they are in there drinking water and being merry. There are also flocks of geese-like birds that fly overhead: in vees! I can hear their wings, whoosh, whoosh, and I love to look up at them. The sky here is so bright and searingly light that I don't look up that often. But I do for the birds.