How's the weather?

There are two seasons in Ghana, the wet season and the dry season. In the wet season, it's really hot and humid and rains alot. In the dry season it's, somehow, even hotter, and really dry, and it doesn't rain at all. When these seasons occur differs in different parts of the country, but most of the time I've been here, it's been the wet season, and then the transition into the dry season. During the wet season, it rains, but I'm not talking about a drizzle, or a moderate rain, or even a really heavy rain. I'm talking about torrential rains, monsoon rains, Noah's Ark rains, I've-never-seen-it-rain-so-hard-in-my-life kind of rains. For example, once during training, I was standing on the main road in my village talking on my cell phone, and all of a sudden, it started raining. There had been some dark clouds gathering, but I wanted to finish my phone call, and I wasn't really worried about getting a little wet on my walk home, so I kept talking on my phone. I barely noticed that everyone else in the village sought cover indoors somewhere, so that by the time it started raining the village was nearly deserted. So, as it happened, one minute it wasn't raining, and the next minute I was in the middle of a torrential downpour. It was like someone turned on a huge faucet in the sky (one with good water pressure). I ran under the overhang of a nearby building, and decided I would wait for the rain to let up a bit, and then go home. So I waited...and waited...A lady from a nearby home came and invited me in to escape the rain because she was worried about me. It was evening by this point, and she even offered to let me spend the night, but I thanked her and declined. I was getting the sense that the rain was not going to let up anytime soon, so I decided to brave the downpour and head home. To get home, I had to walk down a long dirt path, which was severly rutted and filled with gulleys, and was flanked by houses on both sides. Because it was raining so hard, the dirt path had become a small, rushing river through the houses. So I was wading through rusing water, usually up to my knees, but at some points almost to my waist, as I was trying to make my way home. At one point, I saw a chicken being swept away in the water. At another point, I saw what I believe was a small sheep being washed away. There was a short tree in the path in one part, and as I waded past, I saw that there was a goat taking shelter in the tree, perched on a wide branch. I kid you not, a goat in a tree. I've seen it other times here too, those goats are impressive little animals. Anyways, I got home, laughing the whole time and feeling like I was on an adventure. But I found I had been locked out. I banged on the door for quite some time until someone finally heard me and let me in. Since I hadn't come home before the downpour started, my homestay family just assumed that I would spend the night wherever I was, which is what most Ghanaians do. The whole episode was pretty hilarious.

On the other hand, we're now in the beginning of the dry season. In the dry season, during the day it gets even hotter, but at night it gets cool. And it doesn't rain at all and gets really, really dry, hence the name. It's during the dry season that the Harmattan winds blow through Ghana. The harmattan winds blow down from the north, and when blowing over the Sahara desert, the winds pick up sand, and then dump the sand on Ghana as they blow through. In the north it's the worst, and sand is constantly getting in your eyes and mouth and any food you eat is always kinda sandy. By the time the harmattan winds reach the south, they carry less sand, but even there, everything is a little hazy, and you can't see very far in the distance because of all the sand in the air. The air is very very dry, but I prefer it to the extreme humidity of the wet season.

Last week I was traveling for a few days, and my house was empty while I was gone. I made VERY sure that any food in the house was well packaged to make sure ants didn't take over my house while I was gone. However, when I returned I found that ants had, in fact, taken over my house. There were several lines of ants traveling through my house to each of my water barrels, and my water filter too. I didn't know that during the dry season you have to keep any water sealed as well, but I certainly learned my lesson. I was reminded of this lesson when, a few nights ago, the electricity was out and I was cooking dinner by the light from one candle, because it was the only candle I had left. I picked up a water bottle and took a drink, and then I started feeling something on my face. I put the candle next to the water bottle and realized it was covered in and filled with ants, that were now all over my face and hand and arm. If I remember correctly, I believe I let out a scream as I jumped in the air, throwing the candle half way accross the room, where it went out as it hit the floor. I then proceeded, in the dark, to jump around and try to get all of the ants off of myself while I looked for my headlamp to find the candle and the matches. Eventually I restored light to the room, and rid myself of all the ants, and continued making dinner. It was a fairly hilarious scene, and these aren't ants that bite, so I didn't get bit, but I was pretty disgusted that I probably swallowed lots of ants during the whole ordeal. But you really must have a good sense of humor to make it here, so I just laughed at myself and ate my dinner.