Pula (Rain) For Real

PULA (RAIN) FOR REAL

            The rains have finally come.  Over the past couple of weeks, most days include at least a brief period of rain.  There is a collective sigh of relief from everyone, since most families (even those with a white collar breadwinner) have a cattle post and some also have “lands” on which they grow grains for cash.  These rains should serve to replenish the ground water that supplies drinking water to villages throughout the country via a modern system of bore holes (wells) and networks of pipes.  The rains also mean that the skies are partly cloudy to cloudy each day, which keeps the temperature down somewhat.  We are told that December last year lacked rain, which triggered a poor growing season followed by shortages of drinking water.  The rainy season should last more or less through March.  Then there will be no real rain again until the following November.

            It is interesting to see that “city people” – folks with good paying desk jobs – are now taking vacation leave from work to spend time at their family’s cattle post or lands.  These tend to be located in remote areas several kilometers or maybe tens of kilometers outside of their home village.  At the cattle post there are calves to be branded and herds to be prepared for breeding season starting in January.  The “lands” must be plowed and then planted with maize or sorghum or perhaps vegetables.  Some people have complained to me that their “lands” are not properly fenced, meaning that grazing cattle and goats could devour any seedlings.  Sorghum is also a challenge, because the seeds are favorites snacks for birds.  Apparently live and dummy scarecrows are a requirement.

            We traveled by khombi (mini-bus) last Thursday to Lobatse for shopping.  On the way, we noticed that the grazing land/bush had suddenly become green and that open fields were newly plowed.  Lobatse, we have discovered, is a community that has an urban feel to it, with a bustling downtown filled with shops selling everything from electronics to furniture to fresh fruits and vegetables.  Yet the signs of plowing season were everywhere.  Men drove aging Ford farm tractors up and down the main street, heading from their homes out to their lands.

            Lobatse is also interesting because you can see a few white faces among the crowd.  There are Afrikaaner farmers who own and live on some larger parcels in various parts of Botswana, including in our southeastern corner close to the South Africa border.  Some people engage in stereotypes about the Afrikaaners.  We only see the farmers, and they seem to be an earthy bunch who operate successful farming operations.  Botswana’s minister of agriculture is an Afrikaaner with an agricultural background.  And many of the agricultural terms used in Botswana are Afrikaans words.  For instance, the soil around here is called “hardveld”, meaning a compacted type of sandy loam.

            About a week ago on a Saturday, Stephanie and I needed to get to a Peace Corps meeting in Kanye.  We waited for a while for a khombi headed in that direction, but there are not so many khombis driving through Goodhope on weekends. We ended up hitching a ride part of the way with a young Afrikaaner couple.  They were no older than 30.  They were driving from their home in South Africa to some family lands near Goodhope.  They were going to begin plowing.

            I may have mentioned this before, but the motto that appears on the seal of the Republic of Botswana reads simply “PULA”, or rain.  It is also a word regularly shouted at the end of speeches to rally a crowd.  In a largely arid country, it makes sense that what is most lacking is also what is most precious.