Long, Dusty Roads

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. Time slips away like water through a sieve in the grand scheme of service. I don't know how this works because there are some days when I sleep, read, and generally hang about for hours and hours and hours on end. It's like some days never end. I've been in Niamey several times this month, but forces have conspired to keep me away from posting. The Internet is unreliable at the best of times, and I've started work on radio with friends in Gotheye and Dosso. Add to that my fields, my gardens, and general exhaustion and I've had a very full slate.

The rains did not come this month. The millet was "thirsty," as my villagers say. Then in the past four or five days we had eighty or more millimeters dumped on us. That's only a few inches, but when you're used to 350 or 400 mm for the entire rainy season, it's quite a lot. The soil just can't handle that much water, nor can the adobe houses and laterite roads. My house managed to survive this rain, surprisingly, but I was still worried that eight hours of continuous downpour would finish it, leaving me wet, dirty, and miserable in the middle of a field of mud.

My fields are definitely not the greatest, but I expect I'll do better next year. It's a lot of hard work, and when it's combined with gardening, I end most days asleep at 8:30, or earlier. My villagers don't understand this at all. Nigeriens don't sleep. They can wake up at 5:30 am for prayer call, work a full day in the fields, and still not go to sleep until midnight or later. My personal opinion is that they're all caffeinated beyond belief. When they aren't working, they're drinking coffee, tea, or chewing on kola nuts, a disgusting, bitter fruit that has more caffeine than a shot of espresso. Terrible for your teeth, but what can you do? My gardens are coming along. I have sunflowers that are producing seeds, a few tomatoes that I'm waiting to see if they'll fruit, and some watermelons that seem to only want to stretch their vines and hang out. No fruit, and I don't think I'm going to get any. It's like having a stoner roommate. Just eats all my fertilizer and contributes nothing. I'm also up to my ears in okra. I have 12 okra plants, and they're trying to make up for the watermelons lack of effort. The only problem is...I don't like okra that much to eat it three meals a day. So I give it to my villagers, who are surprised that I have okra this early, especially because lack of rain has killed just about all theirs.

I'm very sleepy right now, so I'll wrap this up. I don't know if I mentioned last time, but I have a cat now. His name is Squibbs, or Peanut, or Pip, or Butters, really whatever I feel like calling him at the time. He's near retarded, but a cute little thing none the less. We're doing very well hanging out on rainy days and sleeping when we're not eating. I guess that's all for now. Until next time. Kala han fo!