It rained!

The rain has finally arrived in Dimbatoro! It's a few weeks late, but it has come. You can't imagein the smiles on the villagers' faces when the rain actually arrived. Every day they would proclaim, "I am sweating. The rain is coming... Do you see those clouds? Those are rain clouds!" For weeks, this went on and the rain never came. But, July 26th at around 6pm, the sky blackened, thunder and lightening boomed, and the rain fell in buckets. For the duration of the night, the rain fell and my house flooded (but that's another issue for another time). The next day, the rain continued until 10am. Ousman, Difru and I sat in my wet, leaking house drinking coffee and tea until our heads were about to explode from all the caffeine. The rain stopped and we went out to assess the situation; Where the footpath between my house and mosque is, I was confronted by a gushing river of brown water, grass, leaves and bits of garbage (just a little) washing down from the moutains. Next to my house, the rabbits were emerging from their shelter amd seemed to be in pretty good shape. Thankfully, their house had not flooded. But, as I was walking around my house a gust of wind blew in and I heard a rumble and a crash. The wall next to the rabbit hutch collapsed from the wind and rain, but it fell on the opposite side, thus saving the rabbits from an avalanche of rock and mud.

What will we ever do?

Seeing that the rabbits were still alive and in the hutch, I immediately knew what to do. Ousman was bugging out wondering what to do. Why did this have to happen, he wondered out loud. Quickly, I summarized the problem in a language tht the villagers would understand. I told them that this was all Allah's work. The rabbits, being the good Muslims that they are, prayed to Allah for a bigger house. When he saw the rain coming, he knew this was his opportunity. The rain fell and weakened the wall. Soon thereafter, Allah sent the wind in to finish the job. The wall came down, and the rabbits now had their chance for a bigger home. Telling this to Ousman and Difru, they laughed, yet understood completely; We were to build the rabbits a larger home. Gathering up the fallen rocks and some new ones from around my house, we extended the wall out to twice the original size. Digging out the new extended floor, I lined it with rocks and then covered it with sticky mud, leaving a gutter for drainage. Now, the rabbits have a much larger home that they are unable to dig out of. Believe me, they tried.

The new and improved rabbit hutch

Ousman and Tijani laughing at my story and working on the wall

Rabbits munching on some greens in their new big home.

Thanks to the rain, I was also able to plant all of the millet I received from Bamako. The day it rained, I organized the farmers I was to work with and let them know that we would begin planting the following morning. As the ground was sufficiently soaked, they agreed. We had planned on planting many times before, but the ground was always too dry. The seedlings would never "hatch" in those conditions. The next morning, I ate breakfast at Ousman's house early, grabbed my notebook, and headed for the fields. We started in his field, planted 10 rows of 15 plots of the drought resistant millet and then planted 10 rows of 15 plots of the local variety next to it. In order to not lose track of the fields, we marked them out with giant rock lines. This will benefit in two ways. One, we'll know exactly where the fields are, and two, the rocks will catch debris washing out of the field during rain storms. Ousman and I then moved on to Yaya's, Amadu's and Difru's fields, where we planted the same exact way. The morning progressed like this through all 4 fields and we finished up by about 1pm. After lunch, I spent the afternoon translating the millet test field papers into Fulfulde and drawing out copies and maps for the 4 farmers. We're going to keep track of rainfall, growth patterns, and the differenced between the varieties (if all goes as planned). Filling out the forms may bea a little troubling as the guys aren't completely literate, but I will help them along with the process and make sure that everything is written out correctly. They were excited to get the millet planted, but are unconvinced that the drought resistant millet will be any better than the local variety. What can I say? They've got pride in their own stock, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Now it is once again time for the waiting game.

It's almost time to go on my big trip to Spain and Morocco, and the villagers are getting nervous. They know that I will be meeting up with Erica in Morocco, and they're afraid I won't come back! They've seen pictures of her and know she's a beautiful girl and they're all afraid I won't be able to leave her side. They are complelely convinced I will follow her back to America. I have tried to convince them I can't leave without finishing my projects. That has quelled their fears a little, but it hasn't stopped them from stepping up their wife-giving efforts. It seems like every day they are bringing a new girl to my house for me to take as a wife. Each day I give a new complaint. She's too young, she's too old, she's too fat, she can't cook, she's too tall, etc. You get the point. Hopefully I will have enough excuses until they finally run out of girls to give me. The hope is that I will takea wife in Dimbatoro and either won't be able to leave, or will be able to take her to America with me. I just smile, laugh and come up with a complaint for each girl.

Fikru standing in the first big rain in Douentza

Waiting out the rain last week with Fikru and Eric

Sunrise in Dimabatoro this morning

Hey!