Kimbunga

The rains started last night. They are somewhat delayed and a great relief. The dust has been phenomenal this year. The air was full of it, you could smell and taste it as you breathe. I had to wash my feet and legs with a scrubbing brush each time I entered the house. Even the trees and flowers are covered in dust, muting their colours, it will be nice to see everything bright again for the first time in months.

On Wednesday afternoon the sky was blue, I was working in the garden, it was very hot and suddenly the wind picked up and the sky started changing colour. It first went dark then gradually turned from dark blue to having swathes of sandy beige in it, until eventually the whole sky was a kind of orangy beige colour. We shut ourselves in the house and tried to shut the windows (not very many of our windows do shut!) The air was just full of dust blowing round and round! I asked the sisters about it yesterday. They said it was ‘Kimbunga’, a tornado or whorlwind nearby, sucking all the dust into the sky and then dropping it all back down on us. Ugh!! I have been sneezing none stop ever since.

Normally I have three Bible studies this morning but this is Africa and when it rains everything stops and waits til the rain stops. I have had a text from the sister I arranged to work with this morning to say we will meet when the rain stops! The bible studies would be more surprised if we turned up on time than if we waited. It doesn’t usually rain all day, this rain started yesterday evening about 9pm and it has been raining incessantly until now about 9am so maybe it will stop soon. The rain is was so loud on our tin roof it was difficult to sleep!

Along with the rain this morning the sky is full of 1000’s of weird insects. I don’t know what they are called. They have four wings and a fat body. They seem to appear in huge quantities at various intervals through the year. Apparently they are vary tasty. We haven’t tried, people just pluck them out of the sky and pop them in their mouths. Mmmm! The cat seems to agree, normally very averse to rain she is dashing around the garden jumping into the air, batting them with one paw knocking them to the ground and then eating them. Last time these insects came, within a few days the ground was littered with them like a blanket, crunching under our feet as we walked, somehow reminding me of autumn!