“Saboba…”

“Saboba…”

Well at first I thought it was rain. I have moved to the Saboba/Cherponi District temporarily to visit some of the stakeholders here and compare with what is happening in the West Mamprusi District. Saboba is in the eastern part of the country and very near the Togo border. Compared to Wale Wale it is quite small. The town is really just one intersection however I am finding that I like this small town environment more and more. I was staying at the District Assemblies guest house which is at the edge of town. I would have much rather preferred to stay at place closer to the town centre but it was difficult to refuse their accommodations as they were allowing us to stay there without charge. The building was nice but rather secluded. Right after night fall I heard what I thought was the sound of rain falling on the tin roof. Oddly enough it didn’t seem any cooler as it usually does right before it rains. Also I didn’t hear any thunder or see any lightning. I thought I would go out and check this “rain” out. First I drew back the curtains and looked through the window only to take a quick step back and shut the drapes. It was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds or that killer bee movie in the eighties, there were thousands of bugs flying around the windows apparently trying to get in. What at one point I thought was the sound of rain falling was in fact the impact of hundreds of bugs up against the tin roof and windows. The bugs were so thick that it was actually difficult to see out into the night. After the initial heebie-jeebies I figured I have to go out and figure this out.

So out through the back door I went. I was glad to discover that these “bugs” were in fact termites and didn’t bite. They were about as thick as a pencil and about 2 cm long. There wings were huge and the hum of them buzzing through the air was kind of spooky. I can’t emphasize enough the shear number as there were literally tens of thousands of the creatures. I later discovered that this usually happens during the beginning of the rainy season as the termites grow wings and find new places to eat wood I guess. This was really one of those “wow I am actually in Africa” moments. The bugs carried on buzzing about for a few hours. Soon they dropped their wings and there were now thousands of wings on the ground everywhere you looked and bugs crawling around. I imagine the many lizards must have loved this time of year and were filling their bellies. The morning was even weirder as nearly every actual termite was no where to be seen however they left a river of expelled wings where they once were. If it were not for the sound of the “rain” it would be really interesting to try and figure out where these piles of insect wings had come from. During the day I made contact with some NGOs working on the project and set up some appointments to meet with them and visit some communities for next week. As for now I am back to Tamale to enjoy the week and prepare for another hectic week in the “field” to visit communities.

Take Care and God Bless,

Jason


Oh yeah I must apologize for not getting back to all the comments everyone has made to my blog. It is difficult for me to get internet time so please be patient. I do read them all it just takes very long for pages to update so I couldn’t respond to them. I will try and figure out a way to reply. Please know that I do read and appreciate each comment. Feel free to let me know what you would like to “see”.