RAIN!!!

Hallelujah! The rains are here!


For our first 6 months in our new home it rained for a total of 3 minutes -- and it was more of a light drizzle than an actual rain. But on November 1st the first real rains came. In a country that is chronically late, Mother Nature was right on time. The rains bring us some much needed relief from hot season and have changed several aspects of our lives here. Green is replacing brown as plants burst up from the charred and once parched soil. The sandy roads are a bit firmer and easier to ride. And the place just smells fresh and clean. The wind blows, clouds occasionally block the sun and the rain cools everything off – at least temporarily. Twenty-five years living in Michigan makes 6 months straight of clear skies and sunshine feel a bit unnatural to me and it’s kind of sad how excited I get about a patch of grey sky and a bit of bad weather.

The animals here seem to be equally excited about the change in weather. The dozens of bird species are more active than ever. Toads are hopping around at night. We even saw a bushbaby in a tree by our house – it looked like a character in a Pixar movie as it clung to a tree branch wide-eyed and motionless, obviously scared out of its mind.

But not all of the increased animal activity is welcomed. Insects are everywhere all the time and I’m not just talking flies or ants; I’m talking big, hairy, African creepy crawlers. Scarier yet, my nemesis that I came foot to face with a while back gave birth recently as we spotted a mamba baby a few days ago. We poisoned and filled as many holes in the termite mound as we could and we hope that we have convinced our neighbor and her family to move on to another home.

While our nights are a bit more cautious than before, our days are busier than ever. Joy is busy with school and the library and I have been visiting as many farmers as possible in my last push before they plant – hopefully around November 15th – and they get too busy for me (and rightly so). My field, which I’m using as a demonstration plot for agroforestry and conservation agriculture techniques, has kept me busy as well. The field is small, but it has proved to be useful teaching tool and has definitely upped my ‘bush cred’.

Welp, we're on the mountain and a storm's a-brewin', so til next time...stay fresh.