Now that the rains are is in full swing my family and I are spending a lot of time in the fields plowing, planting, and weeding our crops; millet, peanuts and corn. Rainy season can be a bit misleading, because despite being surrounded by green lush crops, we've been in "starving season" for over a month now. Its the awkward time before the harvest when food from last year is running low and the price of vegetables skyrockets. Fortunately much of starving season overlaps with Ramadan so we're fasting from sunrise to sunset anyway and the lack of food is less noticeable. Our family has been able to supplement our dinners with vegetables from my garden so we're getting a few more vitamins than most, but the extra farm work combined with fasting food and water for 15 hours a day make August a tough month for everyone.
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| Oumi taking a break from weeding the field |
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Since the beginning of Ramadan, the farming work falls
heavily on the shoulders of the kids who are too young to be fasting |
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| Modu leads the donkey pulling the plow |
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| Aladji putting the plow away |
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A monitor lizard caught in my garden.
Lucky for him we're all fasting for Ramadan
or else he would have been eaten |
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My brothers displaying the first eggplant
harvested from my garden |
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My rainy season garden in its early stage:
tomatoes, eggplant, basil, beans, corn,
sweet potato, mint, okra, green pepper |
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| My eggplant had twins! |
African lightning storm...natures television
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