Bless the rains down in Africa

My favorite time of year in Africa has arrived. The rains have come, allowing people to start their rainy season harvests, the markets are filled with good veggies now and most importantly, IT HAS COOLED OFF!

Typically here in Mali the rains are not as frequent as they were in Guinea but we are still getting rain about two to three times a week where in guinea it was two or three times a day.


(Main national highway completely washed out by an over flooded highway)
When the rains come, the streets turn to rivers and city life practicly stops until the rivers become roads again.



Biking has become interesting... I'm always muddy and have to do laundry more than ever. But the sun shine is so unpredictable it is near impossible. One day i looked outside and saw blue skys for miles, started laundry and when i was about halfway finished it was pouring for the rest of the day...

Also, I'm lucky enough to live in a concrete house but many people (Maliens as well as Peace Corps Volunteers) live in mud houses. When the rains come so heavily so often, without time for the mud to dry out, the mud becomes weak. And yes the houses will crumble. Along the older section of Segou, where there is the highest concentration of mud housing, walls and roofs have been falling left and right. There has also been a PC Volunteer who had his house fall with the rains.

But i will take the african rains over the sweltering heat any day!