Winter is Gone

The seasons are changing here. Winter has given way to spring; the dry season has given way to the drier season. Each night the low is a little bit higher, and the noise level a little bit louder. Everything stays up later, wakes up earlier, is generally more active, and announces these daily changes in whatever manner is most fitting for its kind. Dogs bark and whine, people play music, have lively discussions, or chop wood, mosquitoes and flies buzz, crickets chirp, goats bray, motorcycles rev their engines, birds relentlessly sing their 4am songs, and roosters do their thing (regardless of the hour). The pigs stay mostly quiet; the cows, stoic. They shouldn’t be so indifferent. They have it better than most here. I have a tendency to judge animals. They judge me too.

Generally there are more of all kinds of creatures everywhere. As the earth continues to dry out, the lack of stereotypical bursts of spring flora growth is made up for in explosions of fauna. Gangs of new puppies roam the streets, loitering on corners or in the middle of roads tempting us with their cute, wiggly, flea and mange ridden selves. Bats whiz by in the evenings. Chicks peck at the ground. In pursuit of newly hatched mosquitoes and other insects spiders have woven their webs everywhere. Many collapse or get stuck to themselves leaving dark silky clumps on ceilings and walls. Young goat kids stumble around following their mothers or rubbing up against walls. Some are scooped up by children who clutch them in their arms like babies being smothered, four small, hoofed, legs sticking jointlessly straight into the air and gathering to a point in front of the children’s faces. There seem to be an abundance of new children between the ages of 4 and 8.

I know that the heat and humidity of summer is just a few months off, and I’ll probably be dreaming of the cold, but for now it’s just nice to be consistently warm again.