power cuts are coming to Pèdè ...

... say the cynical among us! But in between the cuts, we might even get mains electricity. It has been promised for a long time, but now look - the holes have been dug, and the poles are by the road. Admittedly not yet the right way up ... but they make useful benches in the meantime I noticed this morning!

A pole not currently being used either to carry electricity or as a bench...

fresh and green

Last Monday we left Pèdè with the countryside around looking like this:

As you can see, the trees were green, but the ground was still very dry and brown. A couple of rains had done nothing to change that.

We arrived the same day in Parakou, 200km south, to find it looking like this:

Rainy season arrives, and works its renewing magic, earlier there than up North!

The day after we got back we experienced this: (This should be a video file showing the rain, but I'm not sure if it will work in this format.)

And here is Simon looking at the immediate consequences - you can tell by his clothing that the temperature hasn't gone down much!