For us the impact is usually less, since we're in a fenced compound which helps us to protect ourselves a bit, but back in January we had a huge fire which came within 20 metres or so of our home (which is also grass thatched, though it's two stories tall and thus less prone to fire). These pictures don't really do it justice, because these are mostly from the aftermath, but we had to fight the fire for about an hour to stop it from coming into the compound or closer to our home. Marianne decided it was best to take Elias and our important documents to the office!
The rainy season is starting, and it has been a real relief to us! There are some good things about the dry season (the dirt roads are much better when dry; the lack of rain makes it much easier when we have outdoor showings of the Jesus Film; and our cloth diapers can dry, indoors, in less than a day -- something which takes 2-3 days in the cooler season), but there are certainly challenges involved in making it through the dry season. Like the +40C daytime temperatures! Our house stays somewhere around 34-38C pretty much constantly during the dry season, day and night, which gets a bit tiring after a while! Another challenge is the burning. People regularly burn their fields to clear the land, to hunt (the fires drive out the game), or to help the new grass to come in for the cattle, but it's a really bad idea on many levels. For one, though it makes clearing the land easier, in the long-term it has a detrimental affect on soil fertility. For another, it has a major impact on the air quality. And last but certainly not least, it can be extremely dangerous in an area where most people live in grass thatched houses! The fires can easily get out of control and burn unharvested fields or grass huts -- there are even some deaths each year, like this year when a woman and her child died trying to save things from their burning home. For us the impact is usually less, since we're in a fenced compound which helps us to protect ourselves a bit, but back in January we had a huge fire which came within 20 metres or so of our home (which is also grass thatched, though it's two stories tall and thus less prone to fire). These pictures don't really do it justice, because these are mostly from the aftermath, but we had to fight the fire for about an hour to stop it from coming into the compound or closer to our home. Marianne decided it was best to take Elias and our important documents to the office! On a more positive note, now that the rains have come Tom is preparing demonstration gardens for an agricultural method he learned early this year (Farming God's Way). We'll have to share more about that later!
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October 2021
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