10th SEPTEMBER 2021. Senegal. In a small village on the coast. Near M’bour. It’s like someone pushes a button and it starts raining. Like a waterfall. Although the rain is announced by thunder, and the cloud front approaching from the sea, it is then abrupt. The otherwise heated, sultry air is pleasantly refreshing with the downpour. The lush green of the plants enjoys the shower and the break from the sun. It’s around 30 degrees during a sunny day. The humidity averages 75 % during the day.
The fan is by my side doing its job. Now, with the rain and the fresh breeze, the unit is providing cold drafts of air. Almost as if it has been transformed into an air conditioner. I enjoy this kind of refreshment. From experience, the pleasant climate is quickly over as soon as the sun makes an appearance again.
The rainy season has started later than usual this year. In many places in nature it becomes more and more scanty. Some plants cannot survive this long dry phase. What this is all about, and why the dry season has been getting longer and longer for decades, I will mention in a future article. In it, it becomes mystical. Today I stay with the meteorological and biological aspects and play with the thoughts what I can plant next. It’s easy as pie to become a farmer here. The soil is rich in minerals. The seeds, no sooner planted, sprout from the earth. There are high-yielding mango trees on every corner. If the plot does not contain fruit trees, it is nimble to equip one’s plot with fruit trees. Within a couple of years the trees are one to two meters high and bear fruit sporadically.
The sun is tireless. The ground is heated.
But now the clouds cover the sky. The rainwater forms big puddles here and there. The water has no chance to seep away, the ground is too compact. So mosquitoes have many possibilities to reproduce. Rainy season is mosquito season and means that malaria is circulating.
As if the flying critters are not already annoying enough, they also transmit diseases.
But luckily I have the fan pointed at me. The wind keeps those little buggers away from me.
It is the rainy season here in Senegal. The nature is happy and thanks with a blooming colorfulness, delicious fruits and a diversity of vegetables.
In the meantime, the rain has passed. The clouds still hang over the land. The birds chirp from time to time. A singing, chirping and warbling of bird species that I have never seen before. The ears hear new sounds all the time. The eyes catch a glimpse of the flying singers.
It could be so paradisiacal, were it not for the high frequency clamouring of a Senegalese woman’s voice dominating everything. A little boy cries in response.
Someone has pressed the button again for the second round of rain. Good. Maybe the dripping wet will cool down the heated minds.
