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August 15, 2006

Gorom-Gorom floods

There has been disastrous flooding in Gorom-Gorom. Hundreds of mud-brick houses have collapsed, leaving thousands homeless.

Keith is helping to organise a relief effort.

Flood, drought, winds, locusts: spin the wheel, pick a calamity. When I moved to Gorom-Gorom in 2001 I soon realised what a fascinating but unliveable place it was. Unliveable in that year after year people see the things they have worked for destroyed - one year their houses, another year their harvest. Year after year it happens and year after year, in true If Spirit, the people of Gorom-Gorom stoop and build them up with worn-out tools. Flood, drought, winds, locusts - calamities come and go but the people, for the most part, stay.

When I ask my friends why they don't move away - further south perhaps, where the land and climate are less hostile - they often reply with the verb woowude, which means 'to be used to something'. Min mboowi gaa - We are used to it here.

The Wodaabe Fulani say that Suffering is like the sparks that jump out of the fire at night and burn your feet as you sit nearby. They say that Joy is like the droplets of milk that jump out of the calabash when you are milking a cow and wet your face and arms. Life is a mixture of the two - sparks and droplets.

Please read Keith's report on the flooding in Gorom and then his update on the Gorom-Gorom floods, and consider whether or not you can contribute to the relief effort.

Posted by sahelsteve at August 15, 2006 10:21 PM