Today is Easter or Resurrection Sunday for most of you but here in Ethiopia, we celebrated Palm Sunday. We were having a quiet afternoon when we began to see clouds of smoke out of our living room windows. We heard the crackling of the roaring fire and the smell has permeated our house and our bodies.
A number of men ran by with their bows and arrows and Rolf joined them. We followed at a slower and safer distance. The valley behind our house was engulfed in smoke and the fire was 20 feet high in one area. My neighbour lady told me that her son had set it and she didn’t seem too worried. In fact, three of her girls (10-13year olds) were setting additional fires.
Apparently it was their turn to burn off their tall dry grass and it just happens to reach our yard on 2 sides. So the men started to backburn to keep the fire from roaring through our yard.
I am starting to see that these people enjoy drama which may be why they don’t inform their neighbours ahead of time when they start a bush fire. We heard shouting in different areas as the fire ran its course past people’s homes.
It is quiet now but the smoke remains and the ash will likely fall for the next 24 hours. It does make me wonder, how do Gumuz with asthma make it through the burning time?
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