The Rain

Not unlike my hometown of Seattle, Zambia has a wet season and a dry season. When I was here last I saw mostly the end of the dry season – the hot days of spring (Zambia is south of the equator so the seasons are opposite). The rain should have begun in earnest in mid-November, but with only a few storms having occurred by early December, people were beginning to worry. Some farmers in the area plant their crops in anticipation of the rains, which now were late enough that their crops were probably suffering. However, there is also a local saying/warning that “to wish for rain is to wish for mud”. So the anticipation was mixed with some enjoyment of the lingering dry roads and paths.

About a week before I left in December, the rains began in earnest. I woke one morning to thunder and a strange green cast to the daylight. It then began raining in buckets. Water was sheeting off the roof, and I would have been drenched in seconds if had run outside. The rain didn’t last long, but there were a few more dramatic storms before I left Lusaka.

I now have returned, however, to a totally different world. While I have always thought of Lusaka as an area of high desert, it now feels positively tropical. It is cooler (I have actually used a blanket some nights) and sometimes breezy. There is moisture in the air, everything is green and mud puddle dodging is a required skill. The grass is growing wildly, and the corn planted in vacant lots is about 3-4 feet high. It doesn’t rain steadily, but I have experienced some rain at least every day. Sometimes the rain is a gentle drizzle, and other times a drenching downpour. A couple of days ago I was caught out walking in a brief but intense storm, and some of the papers in my backpack got wet even though I was using an umbrella. The locals are now saying that this is more rain than they usually experience, and that there should be more and longer dry spells between the storms.

I am learning that an annual problem is outbreaks of the disease cholera in some of the less wealthy townships/compounds around Lusaka. Poor sanitation is often a problem in these areas, which have sewer systems that are aging and were designed for smaller populations. A friend tells me that there are enough people living in these areas that pit toilets and more informal ways of handling human waste are used in addition to the sewer systems. Add into this problem a lot of rain water and leaky pipes for drinking water delivery and you have a recipe for disease. There seems to be a significant effort being made right now to educate the public on cholera and how sanitation can reduce the outbreaks, but I suspect that a significant (and expensive) effort to reduce the population density and improve the public works in some areas is really needed as well.