One of our first purchases was our bed nets, which was good because even when it isn’t ‘bug season’ there are so many bugs flying around. When the rains hit the insects really come out and we wouldn’t get any sleep without the nets. We didn’t take any anti-malaria medications for the last 8 months and thankfully the nets worked and none of us got the disease.
It took a while to acclimatise to the weather in Zimbabwe. When the four of us arrived in 2014 we had just had snow in Canada and then we arrived to the rainy season and temperatures in the high thirties. It was a real shock to our systems. We didn’t have bicycles so we walked everywhere. Sometimes it was so hot that we would jog from tree to tree just to be in the shade for a moment. Naomi found it especially difficult. Thankfully there was an inflatable pool at the farm and the girls took advantage of it until it got a hole in it. It was strange to live in a house with a thatch grass roof, especially during the rains. We’d lay awake at night listening to the rains pounding on the roof, wondering how long it would be before we’d get dripped on, but it never happened. The thatch works well to cool off the house and keep it dry inside, although it does start to smell a bit after a couple months of rains.
The thunderstorms in Doma are fantastic. You can watch the rain coming in a wall across the fields. It would hit the house and pound on the roof. If the wind was blowing from the right direction water would pour in from the vents so towels and buckets would have to be spread out on the floor. The rainy season lasts about 4 months during which time you typically get rain at least every other day, anything from a short drizzle, to a day-long downpour. During our first term Zimbabwe had the most rain in almost thirty years, with flooding and bridges washed out and some people drowning. Our house would often have water and mud across the floor, so we dug a trench across the front to divert the water and put concrete slabs over it for a bridge. Often Lia and I would sit on the veranda to watch the lightning and rain, and she would run out to play in the downpour.
