When it rains in Africa, it usually pours in buckets with rolling thunder and lightning. Sometimes it rolls through fast. Sometimes the storm stays for a while – like right now. Drenching the parched sand, collecting in rivulets and puddles, cascading from gutters. The rain pounds on the metal roof of my office. The thunder reminds me of a lion’s roar.
Tomorrow will be green and relieved and the grass will grow. The landscape must capture the water and send it deep into the ground. The Kalahari Desert gets just 4.5-10 inches of rain per year. In some places, like Maun, the rainfall can be as high as 20 inches per year. That’s not much, and it all comes during the rainy season, which should have started in late November, but only started in mid-January this year.
Tonight, the frogs will be calling in the Thamalakane River and I’ll be there to record them.