12/01/2008
Well the seasons are changing once again only instead of getting colder it will be getting hotter. The rains stopped last month so the dry season has arrived. The leaves are falling and the grasses are dying. Because of the extreme dryness and heat in March and April wild bushfires is a huge problem when you are living in a hut made of grass and mud. The fires are set early so they can be kept under control. While you are all going through fall we have bushfire season. The fires are set in the village early in the season while most of the grass is still alive and therefore are wet for fires to spread out of control. The fields are all burned down as the crops are harvested and the rest of the area gets burned as people have time to do it. While this does prevent the more dangerous wild bush fires in the heart of the dry season these can also get out of control and the constant slash and burn method is hard on both the soil and the animals that live in the bush. The mice run into the houses trying to get away from the fires, and just when I thought I was rid of the little guys. A few weeks ago I was walking home from the fields with Hawa my village mom. Not long after we left we came upon a wall of fire moving quickly across the grass land. The winds were strong and helping it along. There was no one in site keeping an eye on it so we have no idea who started it and Hawa was mad. The fire was threatening to go into her fields and they had not yet harvested that part of the land. She ran back to alert her son to come and keep the fire from spreading to there field. She and I waited about five minutes for the fire to pass by and leave the path we were on clear again. We had not gotten much further when I saw another wall of fire coming our way. The land we were standing on had just been burnt so there was no real danger that it would catch again and cause us real trouble. Nonetheless it was strange standing on freshly burnt and still smoking land, watching a wave of fire bear down on me. The fire reached us and crossed our path very quickly. It made me angry when I first saw them setting these fires at the end of the rainy season but now I can understand what they are so afraid of. The grass wasn’t even totally dead yet and I can not believe how fast the fire moved. I can’t imagine how deadly that same fire would have been in March.