So...I have added yet another animal to my little menagerie. Now amongst the two cats and their pin worms (the worms are not by choice), sheep, chickens, toads, lizards, bugs, and the occasional mouse there is a puppy to be found. My host brother brought me back the energy bundle a month ago, and I have not slept an entire night since. Nduman (such is his name) is absolutely adorable, but has more energy than a nuclear tsunami. I never realized what ingenious inventions raw hides were until he tried making me his chew toy. Thankfully there are enough random chicken and goat parts lying around for him to destroy that I'm not always first on the list.
The rains are really on the way now. It stormed here a week or so ago and the results were spectacular. Not only did I learn that my brand new roof leaks (thankfully not over anything important), but I also discovered the difficulty of leaving my village after one of these storms. To put this in perspective, before the rains my village was surrounded by seemingly flat land. Leaving was extremely easy and riding my bike to and from my road town posed no difficulties apart from kamakazi flies. After the rain though my village was no longer surrounded by land, but was more like an island in the middle a very large lake (puddle?) Suffice to say that exiting by wheels was not going to be an option seeing as neither my bike, nor villagers charetes (a flat bed made of wood drawn by horse) would be able to make it out of the mire in one piece. So during the rains my only way of leaving village will be by foot until I get to a more main road. Thankfully the village road is only about 4 kilometers, I just wish I had brought waders.
With the rain also comes the beginning of a main project of mine. One of my job responsibilities is seed extension to my community. As a quick overview I'll be extending a few kilos of improved variety seed to a select amount of farmers from my village. I'll be working with them throughout the entire farming season collecting data and teaching techniques that will not only help increase yield, but also organically help reinvigorate the soil. At the end of the season the farmers are supposed to give me back a double amount of seed that I give them so the next year there is more seed to extend, and eventually they are self sufficient in their farming practices. I'm excited to get going on the project and interested to see what challenges arise.
As a conclusion I'll bring it back to the menagerie. More than work and un-navigatable paths, the rains will harbor one more little nugget. Apparently when the rains come something called the camel spider comes out. I have yet to see one but there are a lot of volunteers who have them in their huts so it's probably only a matter of time before they are sprinting (literally. They can run half as fast as the quickest human) across my floor as well. If you don't know what they are, look them up. As soon as I find one I'll get a picture. Happy nightmares :)
