Summertime & the weather is breezy

The summer months are upon us here in Burkina. But that doesn't mean we get a break. In fact this is the season when everyone is working long hours. Since the first significant rains fell in June life in village has moved to the fields. Often the village is already quiet and deserted by dawn and it is not repopulated until dusk. The common topic of conversation now is 'How was your work in the bush?' What did you plant? Which field did you weed? However, the one break this season has brought is a respite from the heat. The rains come in dramatic African fashion- on a wall of dark blue-black clouds and with a torrent of wind proceeding. The rains have managed to completely transform the landscape as brown-red dry earth turns to grassland once again (and the herds of wildebeast return . . . I only wish). Many places I saw every day I had forgotten had ever had living things growing in them or any color. But thankfully my eyes which for so many months seemed to be starving for green, can now feast of fields of corn and waving soft grasses and bright peanut sprouts. (My first comment back in the States driving out of NYC was "It's so green!") Now as a result of the rains I can sleep inside without cooking myself in my mud-brick-tin-roof house. Yes there are still 100+ degree days but the clouds and winds make it bearable. While the pace of my neighbors daily work has picked up mine seems to have slowed down. It is difficult to plan or do anything with villagers with everyone working full days in the fields. So I fill my time this summer by volunteering at my local health clinic filing in data for records or taking temperatures or talking to women about malaria prevention. One week I was able to help out a reading and literacy camp in a village further south. The camp was held at a small village library- something completely unheard of in a highly illiterate country. Even so the village had a sweet and enthusiastic librarian and four walls of shelves filled with donated books. The kids I met were shy on the first few days of camp but soon warmed up to the boot-camp/craft-time/school/song-and-dance set up of the camp. I watched the kids get excited about reading and make a little dash to search out a book they could take home to read that night. Included in the camp were several sessions on life skills and health like hygiene, malaria and AIDS prevention. Overall it was wonderful to be a part of, regardless of how tiring a week with 10-11 year olds can be. As the summer comes to an end I hope to plan and organize a new association of beekeepers. I hope I can go out with them to collect honey and maybe design some bee suits. Lastly, an update on the well project: work was done in July and much of the interior well was cemented.