Rain's gone. Here comes the fire.

We're definitely in the dry season now. The rains are gone, the wind is blowing, the sun is hot, and the wildfires have started. Last night there was a noticeable haze of smoke over the whole compound, although we couldn't see where the fire was burning. Some of these fires are caused by people intentionally burning their fields - to remove brush so the enemy (the Pokot, or other raiders) will be more visible (probably for agricultural reasons too, but I don't know how that all works); some fires are started by shepherd boys who are hungry for some BBQ rat, so they burn the fields so the rats will run out. The problem in both cases is that these fires can easily get out of control, and there's no fire department in Nakaale. The missionaries tell me that fires are to be expected and can get quite scary, but Bob plows a break line around the mission, and the guards keep the area watered so that, hopefully, the fire won't jump onto our land. They've never had a serious fire here on the mission, so I'm not too scared, but there have been some close calls. So you can pray over the next few months that we, and especially our neighbors living in thatched huts, will be protected from the wildfires.