BuSoli in the Rainy Season

This blog entry is about clouds. Yup, clouds. We are currently at a place called Pioneer Camp (a lodge / bush hotel) about 15 km outside of Lusaka on the way to the Soli area and my current research site, Chongwe town and the surrounding villages. Each day, we have a bit of a drive, 15 minutes on horrible, hilly dirt roads. The roads are horrible due to periodic torrential downpours that make the hills quite slick- one of those circumstances where an SUV seems appropriate. Form the end of the dirt road, it is a further 20 minutes on tarred road from there to the Chongwe town market place.

Those rains that ruin the road are also responsible for some of the most incredible landscape views I have ever witnessed. Africa in the rainy season is simply beautiful. The grass is greener than on our mildest young spring day, contrasting sharply with the red soil of the roads. There are some scrub bushes mixed in with the shoulder-high grass and occasionally some trees- often tall coconuts. Along our drive, there are vistas so broad that the sky feels immense, the biggest thing you could ever imagine- as striking as the Grand Canyon. Any sense of the sky’s size comes not from the land or trees or grasses but from the cloud cover that lingers over the afternoon sky during mainsa, the rainy season.

The clouds take all shapes, ranging across the sky and- most stunning- you can actually see those isolated places where the rains are coming down from the cloud cover to some village in the distance. I have never been able to scan the horizon and witness various simultaneous weather systems affecting different locales. Better yet, the mix of rains, mists, downpours and outright sunshine combines not to make rainbows but rather a sky that mixes all the colors we associate with the ocean- Caribbean turquoise next to midnight blue bordering grey purple, navy and just plain old sky blue- all of this highlighted by the brilliant green of the grasses and the burnt sienna roads. Perhaps we can capture some pictures to represent it (however I’m afraid photos won’t do it justice) but there is surely nothing more humbling than experiencing the immense size of the sky with such a palate of colors. It is a nice commute to work.