On the Fire

I had my house painted this week. It is a sunny yellow with white ceilings, it makes me happy every time I see it. The downside of the paint job is that here it seems that the painter doesn’t have the responsibility of cleaning up after the job. Also, they don’t use tape, or cover the floors, so there is paint all over the floors. My nieghbor girl who is my friend/cultural bridge/occasional house helper was helping me scrub paint off the floor and mop as we jammed to my running mix. Brittany and Tyler had gone into town to do a language lesson for Tyler.

 Suddenly I  heard it- crackling-really close. Since my bedroom window is in my niegbor’s yard, and they start their fire every morning near my open window, I am familiar with the sound of fire. But this was so much louder! I looked out my window and there was a large wildfire maybe a football field away from the house. There were already some people gathered- I asked if it was controlled and if we should get water- they said wait and see. Then suddenly everyone was running and shouting “get water, get water!” Then from all the different yards in the village people came with buckets of water on their heads. 

 Firefighting here is interesting. I had witnessed it once before, they burn their lands in the dry season to clear them- this is what caused this one- the wind was strong and blew it into trees and into the land outside the field. The main tool used is green palm branches, they use these to beat the fire down. Obviously water is used too, but the branches are a big part of the process. I emptied our barrel of water into buckets and handed them to passing kids on their way to help. The boys and men do the branch beating, then towards the end most people were there just standing and watching as the fire moved on away from us. The old women of the village were actually the ones who made good and sure all the fire was finished in the fields near us. 

Had the wind been blowing towards our house, there would have been little chance of the house not being burnt, but the wind took the fire into the empty land to the left. God is good. Several people asked if I had taken pictures, but I can’t find my camera battery right now! I really wish I had it, because a palm tree behind our house caught on fire, and once I knew no houses or people were in danger, I marveled at the site. It was like our own burning bush- the center was burning but the branches and trunk didn’t, and it stayed burning like that- fireball in the middle of the palm tree, for a while.

Thank God with me for protection and provision; for good neighbors and for happy yellow hallways.