Rising Temperature and Mango Rains

To all of you in the northern part of the States (which my parents informed me has just received another blanket of snow - after it had all melted away), who perhaps miss summer days at the beach or pool and the feel of the sun on your face, I thought I would tell you a little bit about the heat here so that perhaps you could live vicariously through me. There are three distinct seasons here in Niger, hot season (March through May), rainy season (late May through October) and cold season (November through February). Hot season is (obviously) when temperatures are the highest. On my fancy compact digital alarm clock which I brought with me from the States (and now never use) there is a thermometer giving temperatures in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. At the hottest part of the day, when the thermometer is inside my house, it reads 94 or 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Outside though the temperature has been 103 or 104 in the shade. That is SO hot, you might think...and you would be right. During the hottest part of the day I just sit inside my house and read or entertain little kids who come over. If I ever happen to be in town during this part of the day, I always feel like I'm walking through a ghost town- the streets are deserted. Everyone is eating lunch, resting at their houses, even perhaps napping. But the interesting thing is that while it has indeed been hot, it hasn't been unbearable by any means. It's really amazing how well your body can adjust to different climates. I think back to late last July and the intense wave of heat I felt when we exited the plane at the airport and how I immediately started sweating- and now, it's much hotter than it was then and yet it's really not that bothersome or something I think about all the time.

Last week I was inside my house making French toast for a snack in the mid-afternoon and I heard lots of commotion outside- it sounded like a bunch of kids screaming. I figured it was some kids heading back to school from the afternoon break (noon to three) who were being wild. When I went outside though, I felt small drops of rain on my face and all of a sudden, bigger and bigger drops started coming and there was lots of yelling from excited kids as well as from adults who were trying to get everything that needed to be protected inside their houses. I hadn't felt rain since last fall and so I stood there for a minute as the smell brought back all kinds of memories of spring back home. Interestingly though, it also brought memories of Niger, though I've been here for less than a year. It made me think of living with my roommate Maeghan during training and waking up in the middle of the night to the rain and having to take down our mosquito nets and drowsily set them back up inside our hut. One of my friends here told me that these occasional, sparse rains during hot season are called, in French, "les pluies de mangue," or "mango rains," (Mangos are abundant during hot season- it's basically the only fruit we can get right now). The name made me smile for some reason.