I just got an email this morning from Satao Camp in Tsavo East National Park that yesterday they had 28 mm. of rain!

Hopefully that will be enough to start the grass greening up for our wildlife friends who have had such a bad year due to the drought.

Thanks for the update, Jan! 28mm is more than in inch of rain - very significant.

I am obsessed with watching the infra-red satellite images on accuweather.com and after clicking on the world satellite image - go to "region" - North Africa, then enlarge the image and go to "animate"....I've seen the build up of rain clouds for the last couple of days across Kenya. Very heartening indeed.

Kat:

While on the subject of Satao, I brought four tamarind seeds home with me months ago and forgot all about them. While cleaning out an old waist pouch I found them about 2 - 3 weeks ago. My husband soaked them in water overnight and then planted them for me in a rather large pot. I didn't have much hope they would sprout because I had tried it before with no luck. Well, much to my surprise two of the four tamarind seeds have now sprouted!! Wrote Bobby and told him he is now the father of two African-American tamarind trees! I hope they will continue to grow, though I doubt they will ever be allowed to grow freely outside due to the severe winter weather we often have.

Jan - Congratulations on your Tamarind Tree sprout! I think you will have to build a hot house for this tropical plant. It is a fascinating tree. Found some info about it on this site: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/tamarind.html#Climate

Good luck!

Tamarind - apart from the great looks the tree has; you can cook with it and make some of the most wonderful sauces. Jan - when your tree is ready, I think we will come over and do some cooking!!!!!

Kat - I like the idea of the weather station - perhaps we can have a direct link from our site to theirs to see what is going on with the clouds and rain in Africa. I like the idea.

Simba - wake up bwana.... is this possible? Get off the beach, put your cigar out and lets see if this is possible (that is if you still remember how to switch on a computer).

Kat: Thanks so much for the link. It is much more extensive than the one I looked up. Very interesting.