Dear friends and supporters,
the expected start of the rainy season has not yet materialized. Humans, cattle and plants suffer from the drought and heat. Our cattle have not been as skinny as they are in years. As long as you hold out until the grass turns green, you will regain your weight very quickly.
Covid
I’m actually sorry to have to comment on this, but what’s been going on in the last few days is just nonsense. Instead of congratulating the South Africans on being the first to recognize this new Omikron variant, the country and its neighbors, e.g. Zambia, are declared a high-risk area and the flight connections are interrupted. There are very few Covid cases in all of southern Africa. Here in Zambia there are currently fewer than 50 sick people and in South Africa with a population of around 50 million there are a few hundred positive cases. There are almost no cases that are ready for hospitalization. But now people from South Africa are stuck in several airports in Europe because the flights there have simply been canceled. Why Zambia should now be a high risk area can only be attributed to the geographic ignorance of European politicians. The northernmost tip of South Africa is about 1000 km south of us and it is more than 2500 km to Cape Town. If the same standards were applied in Europe, then almost all European countries would have to become high-risk areas if the Covid numbers rise in Germany, even if, for example, there were no Covid cases in Spain.
Agricultural school
We end our school year on December 4th. This trimester again gave us a good opportunity to show our students what can be done to reduce the effects of drought and heat in agriculture: land cover and again land cover to largely reduce water loss through evaporation. We had planned to create a larger demonstration field specifically on the subject of soil protection and improvement, but this could not be planted because of the drought and heat. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that within the next two weeks.
Primary school
Classes in the elementary school will continue until December 17th to make up for the canceled classes earlier in the year. We have been waiting for over a month for the well drilling company to come back so that we can drill for water again for the elementary school. The drilling company appears to have a major job in the Livingstone area and is planning to leave its two drills there until the job is completed. They promised to come „next week“ again.
Family
As reported in the previous letter, our youngest daughter moved here with her family. They previously lived in Port Elisabeth by the ocean, where there is always a cool breeze. Now you have to get used to the heat here. But young and fit as they are, they have already settled in quite well. Our 4 year old granddaughter goes to a preschool once a week. Otherwise she always has to be with us when we drive in the cattle to count and check for ticks and „shower“ David is busy building up her company for security systems with a Zambian partner. We wish you all a disease-free Advent season. Greetings for today Your Klaus and Christiane