Walking on Water

It rained yesterday. That may not seem like a ton to some people, but it's a pretty big deal to the people out here. Right now is technically our rainy season, but that
doesn't mean everything. We're blessed if it rains once a week during the rainy season! And it's ending soon... It only lasts from the end of May (if we're lucky!) to the beginning of October (If we're lucky again!). Then it's deathly dry the rest of the year. Ok, that's not true... in March through May it starts getting deathly humid. And I mean REALLY humid. Then you know it's only a couple of months or even weeks until the rains start. Then the first rain... wow, that first rain...

Rain is rarely boring here. The first rain is always preceded by huge winds. And all the dust that has been collecting for seven months flies into the air. The dust storm is phenomenal! If you've ever seen the movie Hidalgo, that's what it looks like. It's not that thick, but it literally looks like a brown cloud racing towards you.

School is impossible to keep in session during that. All the students and the majority of the teachers will race outside onto our dirt soccer field and watch the dust and play in the dust and dance in the dust and sing in the dust... The wind is so strong, we try and lean back into it, or else we race around the fields flapping our arms like mad parrots.

Then the rain, the glorious rain comes again. Huge drops fall from the sky and it isn't long until it's coming down in sheets. Everyone gets soaked to the skin, and mud fights break out. Huge puddles form in front of the dining hall and around the campus - ideal to slide and splash in. All maturity goes out the window and you can act like you're 6 again. Running through the rain, over the puddles - sometimes it feels like you're walking on water.