Written November 11, 2015
By Forrest Rosenbower (Northland College)
Yesterday we went to Victoria Falls in Zambia. Our day began with a morning full of sleep, waking up at 6:00a.m. to gather our gear for the trip. When 7:30am finally rolled around we were all packed into the cars clutching our passports. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi rivers. Where these two rivers come together is also where four countries come together: Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. As we crossed the Zambezi into Zambia via boat, we all clustered in the shade provided for us by the trucks on the ferry. After a two minute ferry to Zambia we cleared the border and Sixteen quickly hails us a few taxis to get us to the Falls.
During our 45 minute drive, Fen and I sat in the back seat listening to one of our instructors, Ben, talk in fluent Cinyanja (one of the native languages of Zambia). Ben was raised in Zambia. Africa, as a whole, seems to be a place where Ben was meant to be, but in the brief glimpse that we got of him in his home country you could tell this is where he worked best.
Once we entered the Victoria Falls park I couldn’t wait to hear the thunder of the falls crashing down hundreds of feet, to feel the cold spray of mist covering everything in a thin layer of moisture and to see the millions and millions of liters of water passing over the cliff face. But, as we turned the corner to face the falls, there was nothing – hardly even a trickle. The incredibly majestic, even sublime images of Victoria Falls I was used to seeing could only be glimpsed in the pictures being sold at the small stand just inside the gate. The only humble vestige left of the falls lay on the Zimbabwe-side of the river that we could see from the distance, showing a shadow of that the falls could be. For me, this really hit home how much this area of the world is struggling with a drought caused by climate change.
Talking with Sixteen, our local Motswana instructor, he said that the rains used to come in September relieving the region of months of drought (in the 1980’s). Then in the 90’s the rains were pushed back to October. Now, in 2015, it is deep into November and it seems there hasn’t been more that a trickle of rain. It’s not just the falls that are affected by the drought however, because we see it every day on our wildlife surveys.
Much of the vegetation has yet to sprout its new leaves, which are already months later that in the past. The water holes have become no more than glorified puddles, and the animals concentrate so thick around the remaining water it is a rare sight to see them anywhere else. The people here are affected too. Just last week in the village of Parakarungo, while conducting surveys for our project, we learned how villagers are struggling to even get water out of their bore-holes now. A week before, when we were in Kavimba listening to President Khama speak to the community and answer questions, a woman from the area complained how she had no water at her house and she couldn’t afford to create a well. She pleaded with the government to help her and her village but, there is little they can do. It is clear this area is drier than it has been in years.
Being able to study here has been an incredible opportunity. As my mother and father can attest, I have always had a passion for animals and our environment, and I have always wanted to work within the natural world. Working here has added an entirely new dimension to what I thought I knew about our environment and all the things in it. Living in the United States we all talk about how we want to save the environment and the planet. I think people truly believe that we must but, somewhere along the way, through little fault of our own, we lose track of the immediacy of our problems. Whether the reason for this disconnect between belief and action this is an effect of our evolutionary drive to take care of our own first before the rest of the world, the constant distractions placed in front of us telling us to look anywhere but at our problems, the seemingly hopeless magnitude of the problems themselves that drive us from confronting them, or a combination of all of these and more is a matter of debate.
What, to me, is not a matter of debate is the incredible urgency with which we must act if we are to change the course of our future. We all must take a part, no matter how small, in shaping the world we live in to the world we dream of. I hope and believe that, for myself, coming to Botswana and learning as much as I am is a step in that direction.