The rainy season is in full swing. Last month, when people talked about the rainy season coming, I thought it would be like a sprinkle of rain every now and then, but was I ever wrong. When it rains here, it pours! African rain sounds different than our rain. It’s almost as if you can hear every individual, fat raindrop splash to the ground. This raindrop choir produces a big, full, and beautiful sound which Iove! It rains all night, all morning, takes a couple of breaks in the afternoon, and then rains hard most of the evening. The farmers depend on this rain to water their fields, giving them just enough money to live off. Many women make money for their families by selling fruit and veggies in the markets and on the streets, so the rain is vital to their produce too. All the Africans love the rain because with it, comes cooler weather. The only disadvantage to this rain is the mud it creates. The main road is the only road that is paved. Every other road is dirt, so when it rains, these dirt roads turn to thick, deep mud pits. Trucks get stuck, people slip and slide, my shoes get 6 inches of mud caked on the bottom so they feel like bricks, and it is extremely treacherous. When I walk back and forth to Claire’s house, I have to slop through the mud until I get to the main road. When on the main road, the big trucks and busses go whizzing by splashing large amounts of muddy water on me. That is when I wonder which I prefer. Dust or mud? For the first month and a half I was here, it was hot and dusty. During that time when I walked along the main road, I would get a load of hot dirty dust in my mouth every time a big truck or bus would whizz by. I would be left blinking like crazy to try to get the dust out of my contacts so I could see again. And every time I took a step, I would leave my own cloud of dust, some of which would settle on my feet leaving them a nice grayish black color.
As much as I love to hear the rain and the cool air is refreshing, I’m through with the mud. I think I prefer the hot, dusty weather. I hear it will be coming back around the beginning of November and I’m looking forward to it!
Beth...you are hilarious! Your posts are amazing. They make me laugh..literally out loud, and they make me cry...sometimes nearly out loud. My feet feel mucky after reading about the mud, and I could nearly taste the dust when you talked about it! Besides being an amazing young lady, niece, musician and a host of other things that are amazing...you also rank right up there with Erma Bombeck ( famous back in the day) for your humor! Love you so much...wishing you a mucky free day...hey...is that mud good for facials? People pay big bucks for a mud facial! :)
ReplyDeleteWow, so the rainy season is actually happening this year? Last year in September and October people kept telling me about the rainy season, but it never actually materialized. We just had a day of rain here and another there - nothing constant until the longer rains in the spring. Hope the mud doesn't cause too much trouble for you!
ReplyDeleteOh, that sounds so squishy and gross. :-) Mud can be hard to deal with, especially when it is the slimy, thick, sucking kind!!! We've lost shoes in mud like that (like on a river trip), and it's pretty hard to deal with. Dry ground is much easier to negotiate, even if it's dusty. I love your writing, Beth!!! You make me see what you see...
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