Community Update

I've been enjoying scattered storms and milder temperatures since June, so now at midday as I write this its only 90 degrees. Standing on my porch and watching a storm come in over the horizon is a favorite activity of mine. 8 months of unrelenting sun makes dark gray clouds a welcome sight. The wind comes first to stir up the hot, dry air and almost immediately the temperature plunges. A few moments later the rain announces its arrival conspicuously, pinging loudly on my tin roof. The rhythm persists for a few minutes, and then as if someone flicked a switch, the deluge begins. The storms often come and go within an hour. While the temperatures remain pleasant the sun reappears immediately afterwards and one can almost feel it sucking the moisture back up.
Last week I was on my porch eagerly awaiting what I've just described. The wind started to stir as usual and the mercury began to drop. The approaching clouds looked extremely nasty. Typically nothing more than a dark gray band pushes through without much fuss. Only these clouds were black in color and were piled far up into the sky. The rain began and fell as it usually does: a downpour but by no means something to be overly concerned about. The wind was what concerned me most. I will often stay on my porch and enjoy the cool spray of the wind and rain, but on this day I was more worried about getting knocked over the head by a flying tree branch, goat, small child, etc.
Closing my doors and retreating into my house I could barely hear myself think. The rain on the roof can be deafening, but the gale winds added to it and created an almost unbearable cacaphony. Add to that the sound of breaking glass and twisting metal outside and I began to contemplate which part of my house was the best area to crouch down in.
Gladly the storm passed quickly as they often do. I stepped outside to assess the damage and was pleased to see that my house was still intact. The breaking glass? Two soda bottles on my porch that were pushed off by the wind. The twisted metal? Luckily not my actual house, but the shed in the back of my yard. Its tin roof had been peeled back as if it were a can of beans.
In the end power was cut to Bogo for nearly three weeks with over thirty downed power poles in the central town alone, and numerous flooded streets. Many trees had fallen and a few houses were no longer in one piece. Lots of cleaning up to do but miraculously there were no injuries. The death toll was limited to two unlucky cows.
The next day I was at the Bogo market and people were discussing the storm, saying nothing like that had been through the town for almost forty years. I stopped by the boutique where I bought the sodas with the intention of giving the owner money for the broken bottles. Explaining that they broke the day before I handed him 500 francs for the two bottles. He refused to take the money, saying “Non non non. C'est Dieu qui a fait ça,” meaning God was responsible for the broken bottles. Good to know that the neighborhood boutiques have return policies on merchandise broken by angry deities, yet the big man upstairs would be none too pleased to learn that I'm running up his tab in the Bogo market.

-The one bar in Bogo, Chez Akamba, has been struggling with a broken refrigerator for the past month. I just wrote that sentence explaining a major issue in my life and suddenly realized that said phrase contained two major issues. No cold beer is to be found in Bogo right now. That in itself is not acceptable but above I said “the one bar in Bogo.” That's a travesty and I'll congratulate myself for staying muted for so long. One bar in a city of tens of thousands???

-Bogo Cup 2010- That's right, the 2010 Coupe de Bogo began in July and was scheduled to continue into early September. Before continuing I'll say that Ramadan started this Wednesday and the Cup was not yet finished. Not eating or drinking all day in desert heat is not conducive to athletic endeavors. Furthermore, an unrelated tournament in Maroua was underway and many of the top players from our neck of the woods were on the road doing their best to do Bogo proud. As a result I believe the Cup has been put on hold if not canceled. The tourney in Bogo had reached the semifinal round and as expected the lads of Auxerre Marouaré, the 2009 defending champs, were still in the mix and waiting to square off against either the infamous Sararé FC, the hopeful Carlos squad or the fashionable newcomers of Boraἲ village. Personally I have no qualms about playing football during Ramadan. These young men, most of whom have worked manually for most of their lives and have had little other than football as a diversion are a handful to play against to say the least. Even with severely low blood sugar they'll probably still have a leg up on me, but at this point I'll take any advantage I can get!