Rainy season pictures

Stormy sky

Seasonal lake

Seasonal lake

Seasonal lake

Peace Corps bikes, and rain on its way

Inside a well

The nature adventure continues. Walking back from the lake, I stopped at a few of the wells near the lake, curious to see how much further up/down the water table was there compared to the well by my house. And you know what was inside one of the wells? It was FULL of FROGS!! Big frogs! The water's surface was just about 20 feet down, and you could hardly see it because frogs frogs frogs were packed in there all shiny and floaty and froggy. They also covered the parts of the inside of the well where they wouldn't slide in: little ledges with piles of frogs on them. Can you imagine being a frog in Niger? Now that has got to be tough. I do not envy desert-dwelling amphibians.

Dust storm

A red-orange storm
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5/31/08
Jessica has spent the past 3 weeks in Hamdallaye at a Peace Corps training session; part of the time was shared with the volunteers' counterparts who all traveled in from their villages for a few days. On May 20 there was a huge dust storm, followed by rain. There was a mad dash to drag mattresses inside, and it looks like everybody was blasted with wind, sand and then rain. Quite a sight! Thanks to volunteer Jody K for the above photo.

Jessica, Angie, and Jen experiencing the dust storm to the fullest degree

Midday

Inside Jessica's hut

4/6/08
I've gotten off track. Mornings. After I greet people for one or two hours, or three, depending on how hot it is, I come home to my compound, usually around ten or eleven. It's starting to heat up around now, but it's still nice enough to get things done. I'll wash clothes, sweep sand (always a chore), get out veggies for drying, wash clothes, pull water from the well. And then it's midday, and the only thing to do now is to make it through the heat, which is white light, and brightly, hotly, windily, parching. Sometimes it is humid, which is worse.

Things I do between twelve and two PM include: study, sweat, nap, eat, write, sweat, crosswords, stare into space, watch my pigeon preen in the shade, read letters over and over, drink water...It's not that bad, honestly. Yet. It will get much hotter soon, and I'll look back on this and think I was such a sissy!

So hot that you could...

In a recent phone conversation with Jessica, she said that she had decided to test the urban myth regarding frying eggs on sidewalks. Since the start of "hot season" in Niger, temperatures have been in the 100°+ range every day, so it seemed like a good opportunity. She chose what looked like a "bad egg" and put it on the hard dirt. She reported: "The crazy thing is that it didn't even take that long!"

According to the American Egg Board, temperatures need to reach at least 144°-158°F in order for an egg to cook. "A sidewalk would have to be awfully hot to fry an egg," the AEB concludes. Oh, and also, May is National Egg Month.

Wiped out

We're all feeling wiped out. The heat is continuing to inch its way into every aspect of living. Example #1: the water. I carry a nalgene around with me all of the time, and starting last week, I am unable to prevent the water from getting HOT. The bucket of water I bathe with, that sits outside, is still so hot at 8 PM (when it is dark) that I'm guessing most people would cool it if they were able to. Example #2: involves water, again. I can soak my t shirt in water (hot, of course--see #1), walk outside, and in under five minutes it is completely dry. It's no wonder I am thirsty all the time. The following simile comes to you courtesy of Angie, a PC trainee neighbor: Water is evaporating off of me like conservatives exiting a Marilyn Manson concert...

A lack of wind

Dry season in the desert

2/23/08
The last week has flown by. It has been exceptionally windy. I think the heat is becoming less of a shock/surprise. The other day it was 98 at around 1:30 PM, but it didn't feel unbearably hot because of the wind. I guess the killer thing about hot season is the lack of wind. I've heard that it's much too hot to sleep, so people end up just staying awake talking all night.
The year here is divided into two main seasons: Locacin Rani and Locasin Damana (Dry Season and Rainy Season). Dry Season goes from November-ish to May-ish, and it has two different personalities. November to February are dry and windy, and night here is cold (really!). March to May is HOT and is also called bazazara, or something hot-sounding. Rainy season is June-October, and I guess it is nice and green in most places, although often the first rains don't come until July or even August. There is harvest season in there, too, right after the rains stop.