For several weeks now, central Indiana has had beautifully clear skies and warm temperatures, but relatively little rain – whether the rainfall has been unseasonably low, I do not know. This, however, I do know: the Californian within me has delighted in these temperatures and conditions, and has had little difficulty watering our yard, for this was normative throughout my childhood and youth. Salinas, where I grew up, typically had 10-12 inches of rain per year, and yet was known as “the salad bowl of the world.” This was so, because the climate was temperate year-round, and because the Salinas Valley funnels into Monterey Bay. Many, if not most evenings, bound by the coastal mountains, fog journeys from along the coast thirty to forty miles inland, only to recede mid-to-late morning the next day. These conditions in combination with the Valleys’ rich, black soil result in the harvesting of two or three crops per year: celery, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, strawberries, carrots, artichokes, spinach (and in more recent decades, wine grapes).
My thoughts have turned to the natural richness of the Salinas Valley – and certainly Indiana has its own riches: acres and acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, hay and tomatoes – because in three week’s time I will be in Malawi. Upon my landing at Lilongwe’s Kamazu International Airport, I will step into that country’s dry and warm season: dusty orange swirls will arise from the hard-packed, dirt roads; the leaves of trees and flowers will have a thin, rust-like film; and the hillsides and mountains will have dry, stunted grass, not unlike California. One of the differences between the two locales, however, is that the Malawian countryside is mostly deforested, and farmers there (80% of the population) do not have the marvelous network of irrigation systems and canals. I grew up in a land of rich, natural resources; if I had been born and raised in Malawi, my view of water and trees and grass would be markedly different.
As I think of Malawi, in contrast to our yard of green grass, healthy, shade trees, and happy flowers, I am very thankful for those, like the Marion Medical Mission, who at this season of the year, seek to drill 2500, sustainable wells within the central region of Malawi. These wells encourage health and life for the people and land of Malawi, and reduce many, foul-water diseases.
The water of life …
In my next rambling, I will give further thought to water.
Faithfully,
Stan