SRO News | Updates: Lost in a Snowflake

Lost in a Snowflake

Published Sunday, December 02, 2007 by SROmgmt | E-mail this post

I woke up at 4AM today. My circadian rhythm hasn't seemed to shake Africa time. I didn't even open my shades until I walked out into my kitchen at 6AM, old plank floors creaking beneath my feet like an arthritic knee. Wisps of winter's frosty breath creep through the window cracks. The white light beams through the glassy windows: A slow, methodical falling of white.

There is something about the first snowfall that makes you reflect.

I toasted some rosemary grain bread, brought out the apricot jam, made some herb-laden chai, and shuffled nimbly back to my room, only to pull back the shades. For two hours I was up, answering a barrage of interview questions that piled up while I was away, and had no idea the snow had been falling - minding its own business - outside my window all morning. "Shame," I thought. "First snow of the season is here to greet me and I sit in front of the glowing screen of my computer instead of the glow from the outside."

It's funny how the snow just made me - Stop. Think. Reflect. Got me to pick up my pen. The snow has come late this season. The rains in Mozambique were late too. Luckily the day after our tree planting, a light rain came. I think it continued even after I flew out of Beira to catch my flight from Johannesburg.

It's half past eight now and the snow has stopped. It rests soundly on the rooftops outside, smoke puff-puff-puffing from the chimneys. "What happens when there is no more snow in the mountains?" I think to myself. My friends have postponed their ski trip by a month because their isn't anything to ski on... "That's not why I miss it though," I say looking out my window as my cool thoughts descend peacefully like soft, feathery crystals from the sky.

Photo: Andrew Wright, cold-coast.com

Labels: Africa, Beira, first snow, Mozambique, snow