Rain

Funny how the rain dictates much of life here. Generally, the rain cramps my style, but it’s not fair to complain when the farmers are so desperate. We’re nearing the end of the rainy season with little to show for it. Every day during chai someone prays for rain. Almost every Kenyan in the area has their own shamba – garden – in which they grow the majority of their food. Obviously no rain means a poor harvest, but it brings other problems, too. Elephants from the valley started making their way up the hillside to the villages around RVA, searching for food. They caused quite a bit of panic for many of the workers that walk down here every day. My worker, Gladys, told me she heard people screaming one night and went outside to see the elephants trampling some shambas down the hill from her house. Scary! (Although I admit I’m dying to see them . . .)

Another bizarre effect of the rain is that it causes a plague-like epidemic of flying ants to rise from the depths of the earth to attack the innocent people living in the area. I have no idea where these things come from, but they are disgusting. One rainy night I was at my friend Courtney’s, enjoying a lovely time chatting away, when the flying ants started crawling under the door and buzzing about her house. It was like a horror film as we stuffed towels under the door and took shoes to the ones that somehow squeezed through. The incredible thing is that the kids here EAT them. They fry them up or just pluck off the wings and crunch away. One got into my class yesterday and I literally spoke the words “you may NOT eat that in my classroom!” and then thought, what did I just say?

Rain means my kids take off their shoes when they come into the classroom – on, off, on, off – all day long. It means they are allowed to play in the room unsupervised while I chug my coffee with the teachers during recess. It means yelling over the pound of rain on the tin roof as I try to teach. It means I run around during my lunch break taking my laundry off the line and hanging them in the attic. Rain means I don’t collect my shower water to pour over my flowers in front of my house. This process gets a bit tedious but I have started to feel guilty every time I watch water go down the drain. Rain means the ‘roads’ turn to mud and my floor will never stay clean. Rain means those wellies were a good buy. :)