sweet shirts and ice cream

Rainy season is coming to an end. It hasn’t rained for probably a couple of weeks. Here in the south there is two rainy seasons. Where it’s drier up north there is only one, but here they benefit from a fair amount of rain. As we would think of it back home the rainy seasons come during our spring and fall. Then there is a short dry stretch that lasts for a month or two during July and August. Obviously things work a little different up north (I’ll figure it out soon enough), but throughout the country work is generally a function of the rainy seasons that bring crops and most people’s livelihoods.

Nonetheless, the end of rainy season signals the approach of what they call the “Harmattan” winds here. Basically as autumn back home comes to a close winds coming off of the Sahara start to make their way off the desert and reach countries like Togo. This kicks up a lot of dust, cools things off and dries things out. The Harmattan winds have not yet fully reached us here in the south, but when we were up north you could already start to see the effect. Up there the whole countryside is fully vegetated (a scattering of trees, but grass basically everywhere), yet as you look out across the rolling landscape you can see the dust that’s getting picked up. In another week I’ll be up in the thick of it again and likely will be able to tell about it in more detail. For now, it just means that although it’s still quite hot during the day, by the time morning rolls around it can be relatively chilly following the night. A couple of times I’ve even been tempted to put on a long sleeve shirt.

Normally, the thought of a long sleeve shirt is preposterous! Im constantly thinking of ways to stay cool. I’ve been assembling a wardrobe of the most lightweight clothes possible and although I usually feel obliged to wear pants, all my chemises are short sleeved. Unfortunately, most of the clothes I brought from home are just too hot. Most of all the clothes here are made from thin, cotton fabric that dries extremely quickly, especially if left in the sun during repos (which is the universal 2 ½ hr break in the middle of the day…basically because it’s too hot to do anything while the sun is high, plus lunch is the biggest meal of the day). Essentially, you set out in the market and hunt down a piece of fabric that sports a design that you like and buy sections of a couple meters or so depending on how much you need for your chemise or complet (pants + chemise in the same fabric). After you’ve found a fabric you like and bargained a decent price (usually no more than 1500 CFA) you take the fabric to any of the many tailors/couturiers that are found basically anywhere in the country. Then you can either draw them a picture or bring a sample to demonstrate the style and he or she will have your stuff custom made within the week (sometimes the next day even). So by now I’ve already got a handful of shirts that help keep me cool.

While I’m in town for the day I’ll no doubt be taking advantage of my new life saver, “FanMilk”. My sweet tooth hasn’t gotten any better here in Africa. There’s not too much for ice cream here in Togo but there is this one company that does their best to fill the void. Most all of the large towns have a FanMilk distributor. Although there is usually a store you can buy the ice cream from, you usually buy FanMilk from men who ride around with portable coolers attached to their bikes and sell along the roads. The ice cream comes in little sacs the size of a Reese’s packs and flavors like vanilla (when it’s melting quick in the heat it tastes just like a milk shake), chocolate, punch and pineapple. On a hot day when your thirst is dying for something cold to quench it, the sound of a FanMilk man’s noisemaker (basically like a horn a clown might use) can make your day if you have 100 CFA to spare.

I have to say that I did miss everyone back home on Thanksgiving. I hope it went well for everyone!