National News

Joy, pain as rains begin

First nationwide rains on Saturday afternoon brought a stark mixture of joy and great pain across Malawi.

Known in the Chichewa language as chizimalupsya (literally meaning rains that come to douse bush fires), the first seasonal rains normally come in mild forms, often merely making the ground wet and coming as a make ready sign for farmers to roll up their sleeves for work in their gardens.rain-mtakataka2

But Saturday’ s downpour came almost with a vengeance, accompanied by whipping rains, which blew off roofs of houses and offices, among other structures.

In some places, the hour-long deluge, that pettered out after another hour of light rain, created flush floods.

Farmers showed their glee that they could finally start preparing, in earnest, for a fruitful agriculture season.

But some newly-wed couples literally shed tears after being left to nurse big wedding preparation debts when the downpour ‘chased away’ well-wishers who could have showered them with the cash and gifts their new families needed.

Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) president Alfred Kapichira Banda expressed happiness that the first rains came in October, as was the case in the past decades before erratic patters kicked in because of climate change factors lately.

“The timely first rains have given farmers great hope that the rainy season will be steady and vibrant. The downpour on Saturday confirmed what the Meteorological Department had predicted –that this year the rains will come early and will be normal,” he stated.

But Banda urge the Meteorological Department to go well beyond mere prediction of rainfall patterns.

“Our ordinary farmers will be better served if the department interpreted the rainfall patters and frequencies, to advise the farmers when to start preparing their gardens and, later on, to start planting their seeds. If they detect that the rains will turn erratic, they need to advise the farmers in the concerned areas to grow fastmaturing varieties, for example,” he added.

Kelton ‘Wochena’ Kanichi, o n e o f t h e popular directors of ceremonies at wedding parties, confirmed that many of his fellow masters of ceremonies at open-air receptions at gardens at hotels and motels complained that their work ended unceremoniously.

“Many of the tents and even some marquees for the wedding ceremonies were blown apart. In other cases, the newly-wed couples and their guests got drenched by the rain water.

“But from our work as people who ensure that the guests, or well-wishers, are encouraged to offer every kwacha or gift to the new couples, this was a disaster.

My colleagues lament that they helplessly watched as most guests returned home before they could offer their cash or gifts,” he recounted.

Kanichi confirmed that the ‘raining out’ of the wedding r e c e p t i o n s a m o u n t s t o disasters for the newly-weds, who complete their wedding preparations on credit, hoping they would service the debts after the well-wishers shower them with the cash and other gifts at the receptions.

Told that some couples literally wept in the face of the major setbacks, Kaninji shuddered: “I can understand. Saturday surely ended disastrously for such people.” Other disruptions affected some patrons to the Lake of Stars Festival in Salima, party rallies, markets and church gatherings.

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