My Secret Garden: Flower Power

I'm gonna toot my own horn and say. Yes, these were taken by me, on manual setting and focus :)

My Secret Garden: The Blooming of Sunflowers

Woo!!!

This photo set is actually incomplete. The sunflowers are pollinated and seeds are already starting to form in the center. It's really neat and exciting to see! I will Take a picture and post soon.
Also, that last picture is fuzzy in the center (boo) so I will replace it.

My Secret Garden

So

these next few blogs are just for pictures' sake but I have a story.

You saw from the video I have cosmos (which may be zinnias, MW and I are in the process of figuring this out) in my yard.

I was riding my bike one day and happened to glance over and there they were, growing wild. The flowers that you see are from the seeds of the wild ones I found. I just scattered the seeds around in front of my house and waited. Neatly enough, the wind took a few of the seeds, and by a few I mean more than 50 but less than 100, and dropped them right out front of my gate. It was very pretty. I walked out of my gate every morning and there waiting for me was a tiny field of budding flowers.
Here in Benin, there's something called sacle-ing. I probably spelled that wrong. Basically, in villages, the school has kids go around with hoes and destroy the Earth; personally I find it offensive because what's left is barren ground and sometimes the kids hoe up trees. It's worse than when locusts pass through.

The school, for my safety, told the students to sacle around my house and yes, they DESTROYED all of the flowers. Apparently, if there's too much green stuff growing in one area all sorts of evil serpents and reptiles hide there waiting to STRIKE!

f-ing annoying.

I now walk outside and feel like there was a tiny war right in front of my gate. I call the area death valley. I don't have pictures of it.
But, here are some pictures from my garden--which in every way, is holy ground. Noone is allowed to come inside the gate and the flowers are somewhat of a wonder to the kids of my village because they're not use to cultivated beauty in that way :)

Usually, things are planted are for practicality; squash, corn, etc.

Enjoy.

3 Dead Mice and other morbid interpretations of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

I haven't had to deal with mice in a while. The other week, I heard one rummaging around and decided to "get it."
I chased it from my kitchen to my storage room and hunted. In my storage room, I have a spare screen door. The mouse started to climb the screen door and I whacked it square on the head. It fell to the ground convulsing. I felt bad only for a second but then came to my senses and said a little prayer for the mouse:
"I'm sorry I killed you but I guess you shouldn't have been in my house."
I decided to clean the whole room.
A few months back, I had chased another mouse into my storage room and thought it went behind my lock-box. Out of frustration I kicked the lock-box against the wall. As I was cleaning my room, I pulled out the lock-box and found the mouse I chased behind it a few months before, squashed flat against the wall. It looked like a cartoon character when they fall on the ground off of a ciff--splat!
Totally hilar.
Then, I pulled the lock-box further out and...there was...ANOTHER MOUSE! Squashed flat underneath the lock-box.
3 dead mice, 3 dead mice, smell how they smell.

I wrote a while back that I would kill all the chickens in my village if they ate the plants in my garden, again.
Yesterday, I came home from visiting a friend and sure enough there was a hen eating my morning glories. I got my broom and swatted the hen--really really hard. It sqwuaked. I noticed that I had broken it's right leg as it hopped away. I felt so guilty. I mean, I wanted to hurt the chicken because it was destroying months of hard work, but I immediately regretted and felt immoral.
I went to find the owner of the chicken who was a Puhl man. The Puhl are a very quiet people. They're nomads so they don't settle down in one place. In my village there's a little camp of them. As I approached the man to talk about his chicken, he was dressed in all white from head to toe...praying. I literally felt like I was confessing to god-incarnate, my sins.
He was incredibly understanding and reminded me that I've given up a lot to come to Africa to teach children who are different from me and that he is extremely grateful for that. He told me not to have fear about the chicken because her leg would heal itself and suggested that I could make it up to him by teaching him English.
I was touched.
Hope you enjoy the garden video. The sunflowers are so beautiful!

Give and take.

Here are just a few ways I know I've adjusted to life in Africa. These aren't arranged in any order of importance.

1. I get a cold when the temperature drops below 75.
2. 75 degree weather is an excuse to sleep in a hoodie and pajama pants.
3. Babies screaming bloody murder doesn't phase me.
4. 30 year old body stench don't phase me.
5. I've lost 35 lbs in 8 months and look emaciated but I'm considered healthy.
6. Finally, holding hands with another male doesn't feel like cheating. Love you boo :)
7. Eating nothing but starch in 1 day doesn't make me feel unhealthy.
8. Riding in a car with no door handles, rearview mirror, or locks doesn't cause anxiety.
9. It isn't abnormal to delay class an hour to wait for rain to stop.
10. I was literally shocked when I found worms in my garden.

Garden Tour :)

a few comments:
:31, except the one I'm showing you. you can get a glimpse of the white one a few seconds before.

Sunshine and rain, get 'em up get 'em up now!

When you last read your Peace Corps Volunteer's blog, he was fighting the evil chickens of Toucountouna.
*!BAM!*

*((POW))*
The evil chickens of Toucountouna mercilessly attacked and killed the helpless sprouts of the Peace Corps Volunteer's garden.

chickens: cock-a-doodle-ha-ha-ha-ha. we will eat you pathetic sprouts!

sprouts: nooooooo, help us Clay, help us. ggghhhuuuhgggggg.

So, I was pretty sad because Africa provides the perfect conditions in which to grow both cosmos and sunflowers. They can survive drought, need full sun all day and can thrive in poor soil. WOO WEST AFRICA!
I replanted to sunflower seeds and reminded the next-door neighbor boy to make sure the door to my gate is closed well. I had to leave post for 2 weeks for PCVL interviews--by the way, I got the position--and to design the stage for the new volunteers who will be here IN JUST 2 MONTHS!
I got back to post last, last Wednesday and......guess what!
All of my cosmo seeds sprouted. In 2 weeks, they grew so much and 4 of the sunflower sprouts survived and are already a foot tall! We got a pretty heavy rain last Tuesday night and I'm pretty sure all of my flowers grew inches overnight. I collected some white stones and outlined the areas where I planted flowers so my front yard has some semblance of beauty before bloom.
I replanted, again, 8 more sunflower seeds and am anxiously awaiting their arrival.
The gate stays firmly shut but I've noticed chickens don't come around as much anymore. I hope it's because they fear me.
A point of personal pride: Last Thursday, I invited the kids who live next to me (5 of them with no parents, the oldest about 15) into my yard to wonder at my garden. They were truly awed. I gave them a few sunflower seeds, helped them plant them, and taught them how to water them daily. They stand over their own little garden for hours everyday, inspecting the ground. It is perhaps the most heart-warming thing I have experienced here in Africa.

You may remember a photo of cattle walking by my house, I posted it a few months ago. Well they're back and with them comes a fresh supply of purely organic, all natural cow manure that I can spread around my flowers. I have my next-door neighbor boy collect it--he puts it in a carton for me with his bare hands :)

I haven't had my camera at post because it was the dry season and it worried me to have it sitting around at post. Soo, I don't have pictures. I promise I will get pictures of my flowers soon!