This evening we had the first rain since we arrived here in Mambwe. It was rather unexpected. Neither of us really check the weather forecast since it usually says 39oC and sunny. We did look at the weather during the rain and the forecast didn’t suggest there would be a chance of rain so we aren’t sure how accurate it is really. We were coming back from the boma (the little town with a few shops and a market) having just bought our first bag of maize meal to make nshima for ourselves at home. We bought a 10kg bag so we got a taxi home from the shop. We were glad we did otherwise we would have got very wet!
When I got in from the shop it completely stopped raining. So I decided to carry on doing my washing. As soon as I put the buckets outside on the porch area it began to pour with rain! I decided to continue as there wasn’t much else to do. We have somewhere inside the house to hang things to dry so I didn’t need to worry about hanging it outside and since none of the floor is carpeted it doesn’t matter that it drips a bit. While I was doing the washing the rain became torrential.
Outside you could hear the rain pouring from the corrugated roof tiles onto the ground around the house(there are no gutters here as they would be redundant for over half the year). There were huge puddles beginning to form around the edges of the house but the rest of the ground seemed quite dry in comparison as it just seemed to absorb the water. There was a strong smell, petrichor, since the ground was so dry and the rain had only just started. I really like that smell and we don’t often get it at home. Fortunately our roof seems to be quite water tight despite the evidence of some watermarks on the roof.
After a bit I noticed the faint rumble of thunder coming. The rain was still heavy. I couldn’t see any lightning accompanying the thunder at this point. Then suddenly there was a very bright flash and, almost immediately after, a tremendous boom of thunder. I could actually feel the sound as it happened. It really sounded like there had been an explosion. There were several more like this one over the evening. It was very impressive the amount of rain and the thunder and lightning.
We weren’t really expecting any rain until around November time but it’s not an exact science. The rain has cooled the air down now a lot but it has become very humid which is not really a nice exchange as it is still very warm just not hot. Hopefully sleeping should be easier tonight as i have been waking up due to being too hot the past few nights.
As I was taking out the bin this evening, after the rain had stopped, I noticed that there were two orange mangos on the floor. They must have been nocked off the tree by the storm. All the other big mangos are still very green some of the smaller ones are beginning to turn yellow but I hadn’t seen any that were totally ripe. I picked them up and brought them inside to wash.
I haven’t had mangos since I got here as there are none around. The kids at the school and many locals like to eat the unripe mangos. I tried one once. Surprisingly, it wasn’t bad at all they are very tough and hard and you have to eat the skin since the flesh wont separate from it. They taste vaguely of mango but no where near as strongly. The flesh is white and doesn’t taste sweet at all they aren’t sour or bitter just not sweet it was odd but I can see why you might eat them. It seems like a better alternative to the other habit some have of chewing on sugarcane!
The two mangos I got were very small ones but they tasted amazing! The flesh was very soft and it wasn’t really like a mango I’ve had at home before but a ate every last bit of them! I managed to stop myself from eating the second one to take a photo of it. Having not had much fruit for a while it was very nice to have a mango. I’m not very excited for the other larger mangos to become ripe but I might have to wait until late November apparently!
Jack in Zambia 