Mango Thoughts

April brought mango season. Immense umbrellas of foilage groan heavily with ripe, yellow and green fruit swinging on vines in the breeze. I am always reminded of free swinging testicles bursting with juice. I can't help but chuckle as children emerge with long poles and take swings at these pinatas. One almost feels bad for the tree- his reproductive parts being prime targets for stick weilding boys and girls.
But once you get a taste of fresh mango juice all the feelings of concern for the tree vaporize.The secret that westerners don't know is that the sweetest mangos- the local ones, small and yellow aren't to be eater. They are to be sipped. You squeeze and suck all the syrup leaving behind the skin, pulp and pith. But noone explained this to me. I had to figure out my method of consumption by trial and error.
The local mango should come with a manual. As a westerner, when I see a ripe fruit, my saliva starts flowing at the thought of that first juicy bite. Apples, pears, peaches, plums. Even tomatoes. In the summers I used to sneak tomatoes from the neighbor's- I'd sit in the garden under the shade of the vines and bite right into the tomato's flesh like an apple- Juice and seeds running down my cheeks and overalls. Pure tomatoey heaven. But mangos... I was totally unprepared.
My first experience was full of promise- a whole bucket for the two of us to split. We washed off the dirt and stickyness and piled them into a mango pyramid. A particular one caught my eye- it was especially plump and had a nice even color. With squinched eyes and gaping mouth, I dove in, sending juice squirting to the four corners of the earth. Then, slowly my eyes opened, I fell from heaven and landed teeth first in a jungle of strong, stringy mango fibers. Every crevice of my teeth was packed full of mango floss, turning my mouth into a malady of tooth rearranging fur. Never bite into the local mangos! Since that first bite I have slowly perfected my no-teeth juice extraction technique.

School Break

Damba Festival.
Celebration of the birth of Mohammed (the founder of Islam).
Originally a traditional festival celebrating something else, but everyone forgets what. :)
The big event is when the chiefs of the different areas of Tamale parade on horses under spinning umbrellas to the main chief of Tamale's palace.



Wedding.
Double dose.
Nash and I have decided to marry :) Peace Corps, however, has a whole regimen of hoops for us to jump through. So, at the beginning of break we traveled down to Accra for our marriage interview with the Peace Corps Country Director. Beforehand we have to fill out a whole packet so they can do a background search on Nash to make sure his past doesn't clash with "Peace Corps Policy." He's a good one, so I'm not worried :) Our interview was interesting, the CD asked us the normal things about how we met, what our plans were, and very seriously he said, "Now Nash, you know it's cold in the US. How are you going to handle that?" Haha, Nash just replied, "Well, I guess I'll buy a coat!"
While we were in Accra, Nash's uncle took us to a wedding with his family. It was interesting! They had gifts and minerals and food for all the guests, but my favorite part was the bride's dress. Utterly amazing.




Clay Fun
Fellow PCV, Jess Bowen, and I took a weekend trip up to Sirigu where there is a massive amount of local pottery produced. I was especially interested in the local way of firing. I have found a clay deposit dear the Deaf School and want to teach the kids the traditional way people make potter in this region. Bonfire style. And wonderfully simple :)

Arid.


Dry season is finally on its way out. Woo Hoo! You can almost measure it by the amount of water that my body needs has reduced drastically. During Feb. and early March I was drinking about 6-7 Nalgenes a day. Quick, how many gallons is that? I want to guess 2 or 3? Anyway, now I'm down to about 4. Much easier. It was work forcing down that much water! My filter never had a moment's rest. I do have a nice filter though. Peace Corps provides us with one that holds about 144 oz. It uses "candles" to filter the water- 2 ceramic cylanders with sand inside. I store water in a 40 gal plastic barrel that goes for everything- bathing, dishes, washing clothes, drinking...Savelugu Deaf has no natural water. Carter Center drilled some wells a few years ago but those only have water during the rainy season. No help. Around campus there are various tanks- plastic, cement, metal that organizations have donated to store water. So, 3 other teachers and I share a cement one. We pay for a water tanker to come fill it ($8 per tanker, which is somehow expensive) So sometimes they can't afford it and I'm on my own to figure water out... Oh water.

I'm lucky though. Dry season is much shorter than it used to be. In late March it started raining about once a week. I guess just 10 years ago it didn't start until the beginning of June. Global Warming?

Speaking of global warming- Yesterday, a teacher sat me down and said, "Kari, tell me everything you know about global warming." How do you begin to answer that? I just laughed and said I would try. We talked for awhile and ended up with a cause/effect flow chart that looked like this:
Pollution/Smog -> Holes in Ozone/ blanket of smog in atomosphere -> harmful rays more acces to Earth/ trapping of heat -> general warming of Earth -> ice caps to melt more than normal -> oceans' rise -> ocean currents change -> jet streams in air change -> ?lots of theories about what next? ice age?
How did I do? Of course I kept saying, "I'm not a scientist!" I also explained how right now we are in the ice caps melting phase. The stuff beyond that is speculation. Some people say it is all speculation.
The funny part is, after all that, the guy says, "Good! Now I can go to Denmark!" Haha, apparently there is a group choosing people to go to a global warming seminar in Denmark. The guy just wants to go to Denmark... Oh well...