Flood Waters of February

 I read that the rainy season of Malawi is produced by water drawn from the Indian Ocean. As the rain poured and poured over the past several weeks,  I  imagined  at the end of the rainy season in April, the Indian Ocean will be no more than a puddle! 

For the past several years, Malawi was experiencing drought that stunted crops and led to widespread hunger in the villages. All of this is of great concern to farmers, and 80% of the population are farmers whose income is dependent on a successful harvest. Last February's rains were only infrequent showers, but this season Malawi is experiencing the heaviest rains in many years which should produce amazing rice and maize crops.

However, there have been torrential rains for the past several days with downpours  so hard, in fact, that I would have never believed that such sustained rains were possible. How could  it rain that hard for that many hours? The ground here is now super saturated, and when we returned home last night to a flooded yard, we had to take off our shoes and wade from our driveway to our porch.  We began to settle in to an evening of reading when in the midst of a tremendous thunderstorm with heavy rain drumming our metal roof, CRACK! The power went off.  It would be almost 24 hours before it would be restored. 

Because the power was still out this morning, we prepared peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast and prepared for church. As we drove down the mountain road, at several points along the way, where streams and rivers usually pass under that road, the water was beginning to bubble and trickle over the pavement.  I had seen the white water rushing, but I had never seen this.

Once we reached the city, we realized that we were blessed that there was no damage to our house or property. We learned that a bridge along the way to  a  large urban community and market outside of Zomba had been completely washed away during the overnight rains. There were also poorly constructed and unwisely placed  homes near the river that were washed into the surging waters.  I do not know of any loss of life.

This  afternoon as we traveled back up to our home, those mountain rivers along the way were completely overflowing their banks and pooling  several cm deep in some low places in the road  and washing in broad streams over the pavement where it rippled down the mountain road,  quickly seeking lower elevation in ditches and over embankments.  From my window I hear the splatter of rain on my lawn and above that, I hear the river roar, as the waters rush once again toward the ocean.