Some updates...

Fathers day and the longest day of the year coincide tomorrow. I am posting a couple pictures of Giraffes that a couple TEFL PCVs visited in Niger. Hopefully I will be able to see them in the future. Also, there has been some shake-ups in our home office. The training manager and Country Director have left the Bureau. These new developments come a couple months after our SED associate country director was let go. We'll see how everything settles out with some time.

After PCVL Training...

Just came back up from the south for my PCVL/PSN training. It seems like it should be an interesting, if somewhat stressful job. I also heard it might mean I'll be reclassified at my GS level...Kyle says GS-11, but I doubt that. On the way back up I encountered a large group of termites flying around for their nocturnal breeding period after the recent rains. There were thousands of LARGE termites flying around on four wings...attracted to the lights of the workstation. On the ground many big-headed sentry termites were herding the male termites (after beating off their wings) into the nest entry near the workstation door. I tried to grab one of the sentry bug's heads but he caught me with his mandibles and my finger bled fairly freely. But the flight of termites was short lived. An hour later most of the fliers had beaten off their wings and entered the subterranean nest and by morning wings littered the ground like dry, fall leaves. I have pictures that I will put up (along with the mosque photos) when i have the time. I also have to wish my father a happy fathers day coming up here. I am anxious to get back to post and see how my growers association got along without me being there.

Changing seasons

The rains are coming to the Alibori! And with the rains a return to slightly more tolerable temperatures. The rains come very quickly up here, and so far only at night. The wind can guest up to 30 mph ( a couple villagers lost their roofs) and the rain comes down hard. The standard roofing in Benin is either tin or thatched. My tin roof sounds like a snare drum and it is impossible to sleep. Because the rains are starting to come people are starting to ready their fields. Corn and peanuts are being planted. Whole families gathered around 50 kilo sack of peanuts, shelling them so that they can be planted. Rainy season is for large crops only, no gardens...tomatoes have not been seen in my village for a couple weeks, neither has lettuce or fresh hot peppers. I started a Morigna growers association to try and stay busy...the Beninese Red Cross thing so far has not materialized. We have 46 gardeners and lots of seeds to start a tree nursery. Be they end of rainy season the Moringa trees should be good for transplant. I went to the top of a very tall mosque tower with my buddy Elliot. We measured it out to 27 meters but the guys building it said it was 31. I will put a photo up by the end of the day.