Some animal pixs

I know you guys like the animal pictures, so here are a couple more. One is of a huge dung beetle that flew into my forehead while I was walking outside a buddies house. They are big, heavy, and fly very fast...it drew blood. The other picture is of a type of burrowing turtle here, much like those gopher turtles in FL. I also am uploading a video of the beetle...and to celebrate my moving out of my old post: every day I was at post I marked the bedroom door with a chalk mark...this was my door when I moved out.

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I know I probably wrote earlier how amazing the Sahel changes face. It feels like false advertising when the new stagiers come visit within the next month...it is soo green! This is not the reality. October is the end of rains here, until june/july. Everything gets brown and orange. It is really amazing that anything survives till the next rainy season...all the grasses spread their seed and grow dormant, mango and neem trees stop growing (but the mangos develop during dry season and are not ready to eat until the rains start...its called the mango rains). Right now the corn and cotton are growing quickly and the grasses are growing high on the side of the roads...all this fades away just as quickly as it appeared, about 1-2 months.

Here is an old picture of me (taken by Big E's far too attractive GF) since everyone is clamoring for one. Things are going slowly here and I am just writing up my aid proposal and finishing up budgets. Last night was rowdy at my post. Apparently the neighbor behind me had his house broken into and a couple bags of fertilizer went missing. This morning it all boiled over when the perpetrator was caught and another man, who was previously fingered for the crime, decided to go after someone with a machete. My porch served as one of the cool-down areas and I tried to look too busy to care. Stopped by the missionary's place last night for some mexican food...very , very good. On the subject of food: If anyone is sending a package between now and the end of October could you please send dried cranberries and french fried onions...we are assembling things for thanksgiving dinner, and with the mail status here we have to plan way ahead :)...(also, if anyone sends mint oreos they will be eaten) Still excited to head down and help out the new training class, but that isn't for a couple weeks still. Hope my sister has a great time starting law school (next week?) and has a good b-day...my brain is atrophying here in W. Africa.