The Jakkalstrou

Something amazing happened today that would probably seem mundane to most of you. I could give you a list of people, food, and even toiletries that I miss from the U.S., but everyday that passes the thing I miss more and more is RAIN.  Yes this morning for the first time in almost 5 months it rained.  Back in the U.S. we are pretty fortunate to live with a high degree of seasonality where it usually doesn’t go more than a week or two without raining or at least being cloudy.

In South Africa there are really only two seasons: summer and winter.  Summer is also the rainy season, where almost every night earth-rumbling thunderstorms drench the dry African red earth only to be gone by the time the sun comes up without any evidence that flooding had occurred.  But winter, winter is cold and dry.  Basically from May to October it never rains, it never feels like it’s going to rain, it never looks like it’s going to rain…it’s just pristine blue skies everyday.  You might be thinking that sounds great, but after a few months of that it’s like the overly fake happy person that never stops smiling…you just want them to stop.

This morning I woke up to a completely different ambiance, the sun wasn’t shinning on my face; thunder shook my bed, and for the first time in almost 5 months I was watching it rain.

Now this isn’t supposed to happen, according to my friends it usually doesn’t rain until early October when summer returns.  Last year they said this happened the same time last August only it snowed...unheard of.

 

Jakkalstrou - Also the masked weaver birds have returned and rebuilt their nests

The best part was that it happened again this afternoon and it was a sun-shower. In Afrikaans a sun-shower is known as a Jakkalstrou or a “Jackal’s Weeding”.  This is because of an Afrikaans saying “Jakkals trou met wolf se vrou as dit reën en die son skyn flou” which comes from a tale about how “Jackal is going to marry Wolf’s wife when it rains and the sun is shining faintly”.

Tomorrow I’m off to the Drankensberg Mountains to hike through the freshly fallen snow that might be up there and be in my natural element.