My link grandma (equivalent of host family if I need somewhere to stay or want to spend a weekend away from hostel at school) lives at the base of Sibebe. Simply put, Sibebe is a really big rock. It's actually the second largest continuous piece of granite in the world. Here's a picture from the ridge across the valley where we went hiking earlier this year... notice how everything is only green in this picture.
A few weeks, ago, I was at my links, and I climbed up. Well, not up the front, but I climbed up to the top of it from the side. Here's what it looked like heading up. Notice how dry it is - bush fires are actually a really big threat around here in winter (now, July, is winter).
It's really interesting to see the pictures side-by-side of the rainy season and the dry season. Water seems to be everywhere during rainy season (October to March... ish), and when it's raining every day, it seems impossible that the water would ever run out.
Waterford gets water from a dam (a little pond) at school, which is filled by run-off from the mountain above us. The dam supplies the water for Waterford, but also for everything in Sidwashini, which we call "S'dwash," the community at the foot of the mountain just below us. And let me tell you - it's not that big of a dam.
Right now, it's the dry season. There is essentially zero rain, and as you can see in the pictures of the mountain, it's dry. This morning, I woke up in hostel, and the water had run out. That's right - none. Taps were empty, toilets wouldn't flush, no showers, no laundry, and so on.
We have five or six emergency tanks, and so the tanks were opened to refill the dam a bit, and now the water is back on. But, they're emergency tanks, and once we use that water, there will be no more. This is where it becomes really important to conserve water, and from the sounds of half hour showers I'm hearing right now, the people who woke up after this whole water off-on situation happened are still living in oblivion.
I have a feeling we're going to run out of water very soon. Dry season in Swaziland is not a joke.
A few weeks, ago, I was at my links, and I climbed up. Well, not up the front, but I climbed up to the top of it from the side. Here's what it looked like heading up. Notice how dry it is - bush fires are actually a really big threat around here in winter (now, July, is winter).
It's really interesting to see the pictures side-by-side of the rainy season and the dry season. Water seems to be everywhere during rainy season (October to March... ish), and when it's raining every day, it seems impossible that the water would ever run out.
Waterford gets water from a dam (a little pond) at school, which is filled by run-off from the mountain above us. The dam supplies the water for Waterford, but also for everything in Sidwashini, which we call "S'dwash," the community at the foot of the mountain just below us. And let me tell you - it's not that big of a dam.
Right now, it's the dry season. There is essentially zero rain, and as you can see in the pictures of the mountain, it's dry. This morning, I woke up in hostel, and the water had run out. That's right - none. Taps were empty, toilets wouldn't flush, no showers, no laundry, and so on.
We have five or six emergency tanks, and so the tanks were opened to refill the dam a bit, and now the water is back on. But, they're emergency tanks, and once we use that water, there will be no more. This is where it becomes really important to conserve water, and from the sounds of half hour showers I'm hearing right now, the people who woke up after this whole water off-on situation happened are still living in oblivion.
I have a feeling we're going to run out of water very soon. Dry season in Swaziland is not a joke.
No comments:
Post a Comment