It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Weather can sometimes be a bit hard to handle in Burkina Faso. It's what we in the United States would call "warm" year round, but then there's what they actually call the "hot" season. The time between when it's cold in December through February to when it starts raining (anywhere from May to July). Yeah, a "hot" season in Africa. It feels like exactly what it sounds like. Cassandra said it best when she remarked, "Wow...I feel like I'm in the sun right now, no not just standing on the surface of the sun, but really walking straight inside the sun..." This time of year involves a lot of trying to sit as still a possible with a really large bottle of water next to me, under the tree in my courtyard during the repo everyday. Even my students and colleagues have a hard time handling it. My male students wear uniforms with button down shirts and at about 10:30 in the morning when the room really starts to heat up, they start to unbutton them. That's right...it's so hot that my students were literally taking their clothes off! Ummm...Moumouni you need to keep your shirt ON during math class.

Well, that was the situation anyway, until a few days ago, when miraculously, a giant dust cloud blew out of the northern sky and was followed by rain, glorious rain, buckets and buckets of rain that lasted for hours. Who hooo!! The French describe someone who is lucky as having many chances, and in this particular case, nous avons eu la vraie chance. My burkinabes tell me that it's ultra rare for it to rain that early, especially so far north in Burkina. Now they can go out into the fields and start cultivating (virtually the only thing 90% of the population will do for the next four months).

In other news, classes at my school are winding down, so all of my students will return to their home villages soon, and leave me to ponder the great mysteries of the universe for the rainy season (hopefully while I'm doing some sort of secondary project yet to be determined). The only thing standing between me and total freedom is 400 devoirs and report cards. I'd better go find my red pen...