I miss the rains down in Africa

Zambia has two seasons...rainy and dry. The dry season is divided further into two parts-the cold and the hot. The dry season starts at the end of April and by July is in the cold season. If you recall at the beginning of August when I was visiting my friend Rob, there was occasional frost on the ground. There are a few clouds so what you really have is a typical desert climate with heat in the day and cold in the night. Gradually the days get less cold and the season becomes hot. Around the first week in September when I was in the bush we had clouds at night and it was noticeably warmer. Rains came last week, a bit early this year. All the dirt roads around here have the finest talcum powder, like red dust. It flies up in a huge cloud and coats cars, people and plants. Like the transformation brought about by the first snow, the rain washed all that dust away and made the world new.

Jacaranda and Bougainvillaea (foreground)

Mornings are now soft, delicate and velvet. The air is pungent with the smell of decomposing leaves and Jacaranda blossoms. There is the faintest of breezes. The days may still get hot but by late afternoon the dark clouds form and moderate the temperature. The temperature may flirt with 90F but somehow even if it has rained it is never muggy and humid, don't ask me how-it is a puzzle to me. So far on this trip, until this last week, there had been but the briefest of showers. For a while I was worried that I would hit them everywhere I visited during the dry season. Perhaps if you are old enough you remember the 80's song which gave this blog it's title. No, you don't? OK so I mis-heard what I wanted to hear. The lyric is really 'I bless the rains'. The fact is, I did miss the wonderful African rains and couldn't be happier than to be here now.

Note: A big welcome, whoever you are to my Russian friends.