Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Finally, the Rains



I was not in Longido when the rains began last week. First on Tuesday, then again on Wednesday. Two good downpours. But I was here last night for a whale of a storm. We had gone to eat at CafĂ© La Mama’s around 7:30, as usual, and just as we were ready to leave, the lightening began followed by a heavy downpour. I went outside and stood watching from the safety of Mama’s large verandah. It was teeming. Soon I was joined by others from inside, and others running towards us from the darkness looking for cover. More lightening illuminating the pitch blackness like a fluorescent bulb sputtering on, followed by loud cracks of thunder. For over an hour I stood watching the raindrops create puddles and smelled the soaking earth as the rain pounded on the tin roof above. This storm was just not going to let up. Finally, Baraka announced that Mama, Mrs. Francis, was heading to Namanga to pick her husband up at the Tanzania/Kenya border and would drop us off at the ADP first. What a relief.

The storm continued throughout the night and in the morning I awakened to a very overcast sky and misty air, a new experience for me in Tanzania. I have never been here during a period of such heavy and prolonged rainfall. My fire was not lit and Youster was no where to be seen. She had gone into Arusha and might not have made it back last night, I reasoned. No problem, I have used bottled water to wash with before.

I met with the fundi to go over the progress of the Longido banda and have a look at our expenses to date. The iron posts are in and the roof is almost complete (pictured here). The fundi ran out of “iron” – they are really tin - sheets and will pick more up today. The estimate had also not allowed for new tables inside to display the jewelry. The fundi said using the old stands would be like washing only the outside of a cup. I agreed and suggested we take a walk to someone in the village who sold wood. The pieces were various sizes and quite rough and jagged but the fundi said he could fashion table tops from them. We ordered what we needed then took a walk to the banda site.

I first greeted the women and then asked if anyone had TEMBO jewelry I could look at. I was presented with a colourful display of the women’s handiwork – sets of multi-coloured earrings, many with matching bracelets and anklets. Like the Kimokouwa women, they were running out of the lobster claw closures I had brought from home and asked for more. Also more wire and invisible plastic strands they use for bracelets. I said friends from Canada would bring more and I would get it to them by next week.

Some of the women were sitting under the roof of the new banda and others were making jewelry in the shade of the old wood and skin covered banda ‘tables’. The main roof had been removed a few days earlier. The fundi explained that he could use the posts from the original banda as table legs for the new jewelry stands. I agreed recycling was a good idea. We explained to the women that the fundi was ready to begin the brick wall on Monday and would need their help getting water for the cement. They agreed to assist him by bringing as many buckets of water as he needed for the job. There is a large cement cistern on the site to catch rain water and they would add their buckets to this.

Today Baraka and I went to a weekly market in Oldonyosambu, about 45 minutes away, in the hopes of purchasing new goats for the Kimokouwa women’s group. The women wanted mainly females, and not too old. There were many goats on display. Baraka examined some and we were told others had already been sold. We were out of luck and wouldn’t be bringing any home with us. We did, however meet a man from another village close to the Kenya border who reminded Baraka of a goat sale that goes on all week. He said the goats were a good quality since they had been cross-bred with goats from Kenya. They would be good milk producers and healthy females for breeding. He agreed to take us to the village in his truck on Monday.

We wandered around the market area, weaving in between hundreds of Maasai children and adults who had come for this weekly highlight. Maasai blankets, sandals made from discarded automobile tires, cooking pans, medicine for cows, oil, sugar, salt, maize, beads, new kangas, used clothing, fruit and vegetables, tethered donkeys, deep fried sweet dough and samosas. Everything was here in a one-stop shopping area. Women left carrying full sacks or coloured plastic buckets of supplies on their heads. People loaded boxes into waiting dala dalas.

On the journey to and from the market I could see that the entire area had finally begun receiving rains. The earth looked soaked and some parts of the road were even flooded. I asked Baraka if Longido was now experiencing the yearly ‘long rains’ even though they were a month early. He replied, yes. The area is like a hot house. Only a few days after the rains began the earth is already greening. What a beautiful sight! Shoots are coming out of what has been such desolate sand. Nature’s regeneration in the bleakest of conditions is an amazing thing.

But nature’s blessing has not been enjoyed by all creatures. The chairman from Kimokouwa village, who joined us for breakfast earlier, reported that 24 head of cattle died in the storm last night. They were simply too weak from the drought to withstand the driving rain without shelter. The tragedy continues for many families.

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