Details Details: from Seasons to Toliets

This is an edited version of an email I sent to my sister. She continuously comes up with great questions. They are really helping me describe what life is like here.

When you harvest depends on what you want to harvest; there is always something in season. The big harvest is just ending. Harvest also happens at different times depending on what part of the country you are in. Even though the country is small the north is vastly different than the south. I like the north but the produce isn't as good as it is in the south. The south has pineapple, which tastes almost like candy. When I was in Porto Novo the season had just begun. They also have avocados. In the north we have mangos in April. So I have yet to overindulge myself with mangos, but am looking forward to it. There is a harvest for wood coming up in November. I am told that I will then be able to start my garden. I have to wait to start the garden because the goats, sheep, and cows will eat all the good stuff if I don’t have fence. Diet is highly depended on the season here. We are about to head into the cold season, in December and apparently there is almost no produce.

I guess I should explain the seasons; these seasons are for the north. I haven’t bothered to learn the southern seasons. There is the cold windy season which starts in December and goes to February. This is when winds come down from the Sahara dessert. Apparently it is actually cold, like hoody weather. The winds blow a lot of dirt and dust around. After that there is the big hot season which is February to May. That is when it is supposed to be crazy hot, like African hot. There is not a cloud in the sky so the sun is just brutal. I have heard that it is impossible to stay hydrated. No matter how much you drink you only pee like once or twice as day. The good thing about the big hot season is mangos. After that there is the rainy season…Yeah! That means lots of vegetables! And the temperatures are totally bearable, like in the 80’s. After the rainy season everything starts dieing off and there is no green for the eye to see. Finally, we have the small hot season. Which gets hot but sometimes it rains and there are clouds in the sky occasionally keeping things kind of cool. That is the season we are in now, from October to December. When I say kind of cool, I mean it is totally hot and I am told that it gets hotter in the big hot season.

I don't have a toilet; the bathroom is actually an issue in my town; as well as most villages here. I have a latrine which is just a hole in the ground. They are expensive so a lot of people don’t have them. I don’t think anyone in my town has running water, so if they don’t have latrine they defiantly don’t have a toilet. So what do people do when they have to go the bathroom you might be wondering? Well they poo in fields, or more specifically there is a hill and people go to the back side of it and do their business. The same hill is where you can get phone reception. Yeah gross. You see guys riding their bikes with their little plastic tea pots up to the hill. The plastic tea pots are what they use instead of toilet paper. I don’t exactly know how it works, I still use toilet paper. To pee if you are a guy, the world is your toilette. Guys just whip it out on the side of the road or a wall and go. What I find really rude is when they try to talk to you as you walk by. I don’t want to talk to anyone when they are tinkling on the side of the road. Women are generally more discreet when they go in public and do it behind something. In village you don’t get people peeing wherever they want (as much) but in the cities you do. When you go to a bar the bathroom is usually just a closed off area where you can squat and pee. Some are paved and have drains...to the other side of the wall where a pool of urine collects. Some you stand on a ledge and you just pee on the ground. They smell bad and back splash is a problem…Yeah Gross.