A Plague of Caterpillars by Nigel Barley

Author:Nigel Barley [Nigel Barley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780601540
Publisher: Eland Publishing
Published: 2018-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

9

Light and Shade

DINNER THAT EVENING was a lively affair. Pastor Brown had espoused the cause of the water project and called a conference. His latest innovation was solar power. Quite reasonably, he had decided that it was a scandalous waste of resources to haul gas and paraffin into the heart of Africa simply to burn them. Investigation of the mail-order catalogues that he favoured had provided, after suitable delay, a huge sheet of solar panels that he installed on the roof of his house. By the simple expedient of exposing these to blinding sunlight throughout the day, he was able to entice a single bulb to glow for several hours of the night. Immediately he cut off all other forms of energy, which reduced his family to scuttling about with torches while the Great Bulb glowed in the living-room. Here we sat to eat, blinking like hedgehogs in the beam of a car’s headlights. To supply the Great Bulb, large holes had been knocked in the ceiling. This was unfortunate as the roof space was inhabited to bursting with bats whose faces bore a curious sneering expression. Attracted by the Great Bulb, they swooped and circled, casting huge shadows on the walls. Blinded by the Great Bulb, they regularly thudded into obstructions or threatened to become entangled in the diners’ hair. One of the endemic cats had decided to exploit the situation with some impromptu leaps and dives, bringing down bats that she carried to a corner and devoured with horrendous crunching and slurping noises. Occasionally, Pastor Brown would be driven to the point of incoherent rage by this flying vermin and fire off a couple of rounds from the air-rifle he kept by his chair, screaming in Fulani as he did so. The guests, the cat, other members of the family would fling themselves to the floor as pieces of bat and plasterboard descended into the food.

The local Catholic missionary and the doctor were also present, together with a young man from the Peace Corps. Ecumenical goodwill reigned. Everyone commented politely on the Great Bulb and studiously ignored the bats.

With the blessing of the sous-préfet, it was decided that the town should have, as mentioned earlier, a clean water supply. This was, indeed, an urgent necessity. Most fatalities in the area were due to water-borne diseases. There was little point in the doctor devoting time and drugs to the treatment of bilharzia and other parasites for as soon as people went near the river, which all used for washing, drinking and dumping sewage in, they were reinfected. Various possibilities were discussed. A series of wells was proposed. This would have been ruinously expensive. Wells, moreover, are easily polluted. It was finally decided that the only way was to take the water from one of the perpetual rivers in the hills inhabited by the Dowayos. This was where I came in.

Community projects such as this always seem eminently sensible. To refuse to cooperate with them seems selfish and unfeeling. Often, however, they are fraught with difficulties, both practical and moral.

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