Weather Report Senegal

The rains have stopped here in Tambacounda and harvest is in full swing, as is frog season. The mosquitoes have gotten better, but I chase an average of five frogs out of my room on a daily basis. October was a hot one because the rain wasn't here to cool us down. As November has moved in temperatures have dropped a bit...Alhumdulilah. It's still sweaty during the day, but evenings and early mornings are what dreams are made of. They are chilly and feel like a spring morning in Indiana.



Everyone keeps talking about this “cold season,” and my response was that they were all crazy. I will believe it when I see it. Then, a couple weeks ago, I awoke at 4am freezing. I put on my extra cozy fleece, slipped into 40 degree approved sleeping bag, covered that with a sheet and tucked everything around so tight that only my face was exposed. Then, after much contemplation, not wanting to leave my comfort, I decided I needed to get out of bed and see what the temperature was. 72 degrees. Pathetic. The coldest it has been, that I have seen so far, is 68 degrees in the middle of the night. My bones will turn to ice in shatter in America, of that I am sure.



My family huddles around a fire every night, which I find hysterical because it started when it dropped down to about 80 degrees. While people complain about the cold I attempt to explain ice that falls from the sky in America. My family here has seen pictures of my American family sledding and building snowmen. Most times the older generation reverts to, oh that's sand. No it really is ice from the sky, I insist. They look at it contemplatively and turn the albums page. My brother says it snows here every morning of the cold season. I think he is talking about dew. I don't believe it eve frosts because everyone says this is the opportune time to grow vegetables.

I still have yet to accept the existence of cold season until it affects the days more. When I am hot enough to sweat through my clothes and bathe numerous times a day it is not officially winter. As of now, I am only cold in the middle of the night and when I bucket bathe in the morning (sometimes painfully cold for those.) Bring it on Senegal winter.

Harvest is happening here in Senegal. First, the corn was harvested, then the millet and another grain I don't know in English, followed by rice, now is peanut harvest, then, supposedly beans and cotton. People go to the fields every morning and sometimes I join them, but more often I help them when they have returned.

We spent many a late night husking corn. We also take the kernels off the cob, which is really hard with brand new corn. Sometimes we put corn cobs in a bag and beat it with a branch. This is by far my favorite task. We do it so that we can pound and cook the corn immediately, because by now last years food supply has run out. Rice is just dried and pounded to remove the outer shell. Shelling peanuts is a part of my everyday life now. Every single night, my sisters, moms and I sit around the fire and shell buckets of peanuts. I actually have peanut shelling callouses I am quite proud of. Such is harvest.