Well the rainy season is always due to start on Zambian Independence Day, there or thereabouts or so the locals say, but this year they started with a bang... literally!
I'd been over to the eastern side of the Luangwa River to witness the Chama Distercit Conservation Education Day. We supprt a CE programme in 6 schools over there and the NLCP CE Officer, Sylvester Kampamba visits the schools every month to recap on lessons learned. Once a year we get all the schools in each district participating in the programme together for a day of celebration to perform sketches, read poems, sing songs and play football and netball in the afternoon. It's a lovely day and prizes are awarded for the best entries. We have to hold the day as close to the end of the year as possible so the students have a chance to understand and present what they have learned but not so late we get caught out over the other side of the river from Marula Puku/home!
Driving back after a very successful morning and leaving the sports events to play out in the afternoon, I could see a few storm clouds gathering but paid little attention as they were overhead and unlikely to hit Marula. The heat of Octobers past hadn't built up to unbearable temperatures and we hadn't sat and sweltered in the office for days as the clouds came and threatened but then blew themselves out. Besides, unsubstantiated but true, the moon had yet to change and that generally is a sign of the rains' arrival.
I got back to Marula and had a cup of tea and remarked that it was looking quite ominous. I think Ed's exact reply was: It's not going to be very heavy.
Thirty minutes later we had 18mm of hail and no workshop roof! The tin sheets had literally ripped off like a sardine tin lid and only stopped flying far away by getting wedged into the front grill of the truck. It was lucky no-one was in the way or injured. Aaron and Ed strapped down a tarpaulin to keep the inside of the workshop "dry" and damage control began!
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