I really didn’t plan on writing a blog post for this year’s Blog Action Day because I honestly don’t have all that much to say about climate change. But I think the weather this week wanted me to. We are now heading toward the end of October, and normally here in Cameroon, that means the beginning of dry season – months without rain, the heat, dust everywhere, dry season sickness – oh the horror. However, this past week, you would have thought we were in June – the midst of rainy season.
Like any culture, talking about the weather is the primary subject of small talk. This past week or so, everyone in village has been commenting on the bizarre weather this year – the constant rain and low temperature. I am not sure if I’ve just acclimated to the weather or it really is colder, but two days ago, I found myself bundled up in a cashmere sweater, sweat pants, socks and a fleece blanket while sitting with a cup of hot tea because it felt like winter where there is snow on the ground.
The temperature was likely only 60 degree at most, and this means this next winter, when I will actually spend it somewhere with snow, I may just freeze over. Anyway, the point is the abnormality of the weather. Whether or not the globe is warming up and the North Pole is melting away, the climate is absolute not the same. Is this the natural progression and evolution or is this due to our carbon footprint? I don’t know. This is why I wasn’t going to write a post – I don’t have anything intelligent to say regarding the matter.
What I do know is, while this may not effect the everyday lives of people in the industrial world, its effect is immediate in places where agriculture is the main source of livelihood, such as with people in my village. In the rainy season, the rain usually comes in the afternoon, so people plan to go into the farm in the morning to work and return home before the afternoon downpour. But these past two weeks, the rain comes whenever it feels like it. People have no way of planning their days.
Few days ago, I took a moto to visit the lycée regarding my library project. The lycée in Batié is sort of in the mountains and not very easy to get to. Just as I was wrapping up with the meeting, the rain came, and not the typical rainy season rain where it pours for 15 minutes and stops. This was the annoying London kind of rain where it rains continuously and just hard enough where I couldn’t take the moto back; I had no other option but to wait. So I waited – for three hours. On this particular day, I made the fatal mistake of forgetting my book at home. Those were three very long hours.
The repeated conversation I’ve had with villagers this week about the strange weather motivated me to write this not-so-in-depth post on climate change. Whether it’s getting cold or getting hot – the weather is changing, and already affecting lives of people in some corners of the world.
I liked it.
Bathmate