Lightning Strikes

More or less what Kedougou looks like during the rainy season

The rainy season can be difficult because roads in Kedougou get flooded, huts fall down due to intense rainfalls, and the humidity is so thick you can cut it with a knife. However, one occurrence that I took for granted was lightning strikes. The people in my village blame that on modern technology, such as solar panels sitting outside huts and the “reseau “ (cell service) coming from smartphones. But it was a mid- September, the time of the year when lightning decorates the sky everyday, a dangerous strike actually happened in Fode binea.

Aftermath

I was sitting in my hut at 8 am and rolling thunder was roaring outside when it hit. Everything turned white and the thunderclap that followed it was so loud the ground shook. I felt the hairs on my body standing from the electricity in the air. Five seconds later I heard screams coming from the women in my compound and all the men rushing out. I stepped outside into the pouring rain to see that a hut was stuck by lightning about 30 yards away from mine.

The fire was so huge that nothing could calm it down. The heat radiating from it was so intense I could feel it while standing next to my hut. The men were there trying to see if anyone was inside while the women started yelling Malinke prayers to consol themselves and others. I knew who lived there, so I was crying with them. The crying was so real and in unison that the fear and shock was evenly spread amongst all those present.

I'm happy to say that no one was inside when it happened. Noone was hurt, and once that was realized,  everyone came together in front of the hut to comfort the family, say prayers, and sacrifice a goat as a message to God to not strike the village again.

And from then on, lightning hasn’t struck Fode Binea. But I’ll never forget watching that hut burn to the ground and crying with the women. Even though this was a horrible thing that happened in a village I call my home, it actually made me feel more apart of my community. When that hut got struck, everyone felt that shock together, not just the person that owned it. In Fode Binea when something bad happens to one person, it happens to everyone.