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These pictures are of the flooded Mono river during the first two weeks. After the first two weeks, the river went back to its bed, but only stayed there for a week before flooding again. When we were drying out, the air reeked of rotting vegetation, but now that we are wet again, I have a fresh breeze off the water. I am told that the third time the river leaves its banks in its flooding season, which is now, big fish come with the water. (Obviously big fish don't come into my yard during the dry season...) The first two times I only saw lots of little fish and many tadpoles, which the kingfishers feasted upon. Now, even late at night, I hear sounds of what seem to be large fish hitting the top of the water, eating bugs. I need a fish net, and some line and a hook. I hope that pictures are interesting, at least for those few of you who have met Athieme in person. I now have no interest in seeing more water- I post pictures for your edification. :)
Yovocome, my neighborhood, is not hit so hard as other places- in villages where home are made of beaten earth, families sleep on tables and parents tie their children to roof beams (the roofs are rather low) in case of flooding in the rooms mixed with restless sleepers. Roads leading from those villages to a main town are cut off, and people wade if not lucky enough to find a dug-out canoe to bring them across.
Another point of view, though, is that it is interesting to see how a river floods without having been canalized. There is a dam about 200 kilometers upstream which has helped diminish the area flooded, but other than that and deforestation, not too much has changed on the river, meaning that the natural flood routes (i.e., my yard) are still present and are entirely full as of this morning, and filling. It's interesting to me to see how a river naturally absorbs the force of all the water flowing through its bed.

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