It rained today. This might not sound like a big deal but in Burundi it only rains during the rainy season, usually once a day and not for very long, but when it rains it pours. It comes down so hard that people hide in the Library or stay in their class, shutting all the windows and putting a pause on life until the sky is done dumping. I thought this was all a little odd until I lived in a rainy season and now I have gotten to experience it first hand, the skin soaking, run for cover, drenching rain that it is. Yesterday we collected 12 cups of rain from INSIDE our apartment. I smiled at first as I saw the students run into the library and shut the doors behind them or as people hurridly pulled clothes off the line but then it began to get louder and louder as it beat down on the tin roof. Reality hit as my papers started flying all over, down the hallway and into different rooms. We felt rain in every room and saw it spill into our apartment through the closed windows. All we could do was laugh, every shelf in the kitchen was wet, we had to pull back the rugs as puddles started to formulate under the windows and cover our things as it started to spray in from the vents above. It was hilarious to see us so relaxed at first then madly dashing around trying to do damage control. We measured and counted, mostly just so we could blog about it, but there was so much! I have a new appreciation for those who 'wait out the rain', who take cover wherever possible, I may be washable but I'm not crazy- getting soaked mid-day is not always the best plan. And I have a new appreciation for those without windows, those who have to take cover in homes where the roof doesn't always line up with the walls and the floor is made not made of concrete but of mud.
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