Going Green

It seems most places in the world have a change in seasons. This past weekend I was in Central Park with my sister and enjoyed marvelous weather with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 70s. The trees are budding and grass is now green as bare dull branches spring to life with purple, white, and various colored flowers showing their buds. The colors started appearing a few weeks ago, but they’ve now taken over everywhere. The beauty of creation is a bit easier to appreciate this time of year than in the winter, and life becomes a little more enjoyable.

It’s about this time that things in Sudan should also be turning green. While the colors aren’t as varied, it is a bit more dramatic. The seasons in Sudan oscillate between completely dry, brown, and dusty to full of life, green, and muddy. While I didn’t see places in Sudan get as beautiful as many other places I’ve been and lived, the drastic change from the end of dry season to the wet, rainy season is more drastic than any seasonal change I’ve seen. I think the closest comparison I could make is when a random snow (enough to cover everything) occurs in late April after things have turned green and trees have flowered. Then, as the snow melts, you see everything go from white in the morning to green by afternoon as the sun melts the little bit of snow. It is almost as quick a change as everything goes from complete brown everywhere to completely green in a matter of days.

The spring brings beauty to North America and we can enjoy getting out of the house or office. Sports go from indoor basketball, volleyball and the like to outdoor baseball, beach volleyball, and others. In Sudan, transportation may go from rough to nearly impossible, but the rain is welcomed by all. If the rains don’t come or get delayed, a drought results in outbreaks of disease and deaths from malnutrition and starvation as nearly all households rely on farming to provide the food that is eaten. Seasons are a wonderful thing, and it’s incredible the different purposes that are served in different areas around the world.

December 28, 2008

June 22, 2008

These photos are on the same hill. They aren't at exactly the same spot, the dry one is looking up the hill as the green one overlooks a bit of the valley, but you can see an example of the difference. In rocky areas such as this, you can hardly tell that any grass would grow when it's dry, but during the rainy season, you would hardly know it was rocky.