alicia in africa: rain drops keep falling on my head

one day while looking at how much memory i had left on my camera, i accidently deleted 2 months worth pictures & videos, over 300. i was very very sad about it because i had so many great pics. the beginning of the rains, plowing & planting, cute kids, etc. but i can't get them back. so here is what i have....

ready to transplant rice

how most things are carried by women. sometimes they carry stuff that is over 75lbs.

ladies in the rice field. they are transplanting rice from the nursery to the swampy rice patty.

ladies chatting with each other in the rice fields. lots of gossip can be exchange.

they are ready to transplant!

leveling the mud in the rice patty. this is so they can transplant and to make sure all the plants get a good amount of water. rice plants LOVE water.

lunch time! this food bowl can feed up to eight people. everyone eats with their right hand, if a spoon is available it can be used.

some members of the fula tribe still practice traditional scaring and tattooing. if you look at this woman's bottom lip and chin it is a dark green color. the gums are also tattooed.

the woman in the green is my good friend fatou. she cooks my dinner. i went to the rice fields with her and after lunch she wanted me to take a picture of her with the chicken bone in her mouth. i thought it was funny so i did.

she has typical traditional fula scaring on her cheek bones.

lunch is yummy!

This is a gele-gele on the ferry that i typically cross. check out how high the load is on top of that van! there is ALWAYS room for something else.

beautiful day!

its so beautiful now that everything is green again. four months ago this place looked like a waste land.

cattle run free during the day and are tied up at night. during the rainy season they are often herded so that they won't eat anyone's crops. but after harvest, they are allowed to roam where they please. this often includes the road, where they have the right-of-way.

in rice field, a storm was coming in behind me.

resting under a shade tree after walking the 2km to the rice field.

my friend seedii. he is the one learning about rabbits. we needed some rice hay to feed the rabbits, so we used the donkey cart to carry about 10 big rice bags full the 2km back to the rabbit building.

donkey and horse carts are a very common method of travel. it's not too fast, but nice if you have a long way to go or something heavy to carry. donkeys and horses are also used for plowing fields.

my friend fatou eating before heading off to the rice fields. women often go out around 10am-noon and return around 5pm. right now b/c of ramadan, they aren't eating or drinking when the sun is out.

my friend auntie sweeping her yard with a local broom.

baboon seen in the wood lot near my house. they often jump the fence of my garden and steal my egg plants, corn, squashes, and okra. very annoying

this is my ram. i purchased him for relatively cheap and hope to sell him for a higher price during the muslim celebration of tabaski (spell check??). the profit will be used to buy more rabbit food. i named him "domida," which is a meal that sometimes contains meat. kind of like naming a pig "pork chop."

little beach bar we like to hang out it when i come to the capital.

mandy lives about 35km from me. we go to monthly "poultry association" meetings. it is kind of cool to have matching clothes made. we thought this fabric was quite appropriate for the poultry association. when we arrived at the meeting one woman was upset that we did not tell her we were getting matching clothes b/c she wanted to be in on the "asoobii" (matching outfits).

pizza for the birthday celebration. so so so tasty! i can only go to western style restaurants in the capital area. my first time having real cheese or pork product (peperoni) in over three months.