The 5 Seasons

Burkina is in the northern hemisphere, but its seasons don't exactly follow the seasons in America, at all. Here's what we have here:

December-January: "Cold" season where it gets down to the high 60's at night; otherwise, dry and dusty. People do a lot of gardening around this time, so there tend to be a lot of fruits and vegetables in the market. This is also the time that a lot of construction and house repair happens because people have more free time and money after the November harvest. Fruit in season: watermelons.

February-March: Harmattan season. Moderately hot and extremely dry. The harmattan is the wind that blows in dust off of the Sahara. It. is. so. dusty. The haze from dust is reminiscent of smog in Beijing on a bad day.

March-May: Hot season. Supposedly it will get up to the 110's-120's during the day. Dreading this.

June-September: Rainy season. People spend most of their time working in millet, corn, rice, and sorghum fields. They don't do much vegetable gardening during this time, and the grains from the previous year are starting to run out, so nobody has money or good nutrition. Fruit in season: mangoes.

October-November: Mini hot season, but not as hot as the real hot season apparently. This is the harvest season for grains, thus it's the busiest time of year for most people. Fruit in season: guavas.

I mention the fruits that are in season because they are EVERYWHERE and you can get them for practically free. People eat them nonstop.

We're starting to get into the harmattan season. I couldn't see the sun this morning because it was so hazy. Biking is difficult, especially in dresses. The dust is crazy. I can sweep out my house in the morning and by afternoon it will already be covered in another film of dust. Since we've been out of the wet season for awhile, most of the green plant life has died off, so the landscape is all flat rust colored and there's nothing to block your view of the garbage that people throw around everywhere. It's lovely. My classes are interrupted every 10 minutes or so when a big gust of wind blows in another cloud of dust. It's pretty terrifying looking when you see it coming, and the students all scream "DUST!" and run to slam shut the doors and windows. Of course, then it's pitch black in the classroom because there aren't any lights. And you thought your high school had weird problems.