Baaba Maal is a Senegalese Musician living in the reportedly drought stricken Sahel Region in Africa.
An email received by Lumiere from Baaba Maal and the Avaaz team apprises that 18 million people are on the brink of disaster, including 1 million children at risk of starvation. According to the email, in days world leaders in Brussels will gather to discuss the Sahel.
As I write this blog, the soft Irish rain is falling outside the window. In the front of the little whitewashed Irish cottage where I am fortunate to live, the seeds and flowers I planted recently are growing due to the refreshing water falling from the skies. I have sufficient food for my needs, and plenty of water at hand. However, I have lived through dry times in South Africa. When I was growing up, I remember one time when we experienced a drought. It was horrendous. The heat was so strong that the earth cracked, and as a teenager when I walked a few steps barefoot on the tar road the tar had melted and bubbles were popping on the surface. I had blistered black tar burned into the soles of my feet for months.
It was so dry that families were at risk. We were blessed with a marvellous municipality which sent a water truck to each road daily, where families could collect water for their needs. I remember we were a family with five children at the time, so received a larger portion of water than smaller family units. The clear water in buckets was guarded as precious in our kitchen, and outside the trees wilted, gardens and flowers died, and cracks appeared in the earth. A few wells owned by the privileged few in Welkom had helped many of us suffering from the drought restrictions get through that terrible time.
At the school where I was educated, we sat in the broiling heat in the classrooms, trying not to faint with the heat. The teachers allowed children to drink glasses of water in the classroom, as we were dehydrating so fast. Outside the air shimmered with the heat. A set of teenager lads my brothers knew who were real jokers fried eggs on the bonnet of their car by simply cracking the eggs onto the metal hood. The eggs then promptly fried. The lads had to move quickly to prevent their impromptu meal from burning.
Animals suffered, and so did we. It was so difficult trying to keep clean in the heat, when each ration of water we were given presented the choice whether to drink it or to use some for washing. I had long hair at the time, I came very near to cutting it all off as precious water could not be wasted on the luxury of long hair. The pinnacle of the drought came when we as teenagers walked home, our lips cracked and bleeding due to the sheer heat. As my friend walked past a tree, a bird in the leafless tree expired from the heat and dropped down dead in front of her. A drought is no fun.
The day the storm of sand came swirling in through the Dutch door of our kitchen and into the houses, under the door frames and down the chimneys, all we saw was a tornado of red sand coming in through the half open doorway. The choking blanket of dust stung our arms, faces and legs. I remember grabbing teatowels to cover our eyes, noses and mouths as the sand was so severe it was difficult to breathe. And then came the glorious rain, an explosion of thunderous curtains of water with lightning which broke the drought which had so nearly broken us. My mother often told the story how she looked out and saw us, toddlers and teenagers all out in the front garden, dancing in the rain, oblivious to the lightning and thunder. The joy when the drought broke, and the cool wind blew through the South African veldt...
So. I know what a drought is like. However, because of our municipality, my hard working parents and our resources, we came through it well, and had sufficient for our needs. I shudder to think if we had not had the assistance we so badly needed ... I often remember those days. Many people were not as fortunate as we were, and are not so fortunate. Children are at risk in the Sahel - people who live there are struggling with horrendous circumstances.
In the spirit of Lumiere, is there anything you can do to help a drought stricken area?
Baaba Maal pleads that we join globally with him to ask world leaders in Brussels to help in the Sahel.
Please find information at
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_grain_sacks_are_empty/?bUtIbdb&v=15175
*Photograph courtesy of Baaba Maal and Avaaz team petition
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