“The Rains down in Africa..”

Le 6 octobre September marked the beginning of two rain seasons here in Rwanda. It doesn’t rain constantly, but when it does? DOES IT EVER Sunday night after dinner, I had gotten ready for bed and was doing some reading. I heard a few raindrops start on the roof, and decided to pay my full attention to this, one of my favorite things. There’s nothing like a rain storm, especially when you’re going to sleep. I watched from my window as the rain picked up and the wind came howling through. The trees swayed with the extreme force of the wind, trying to hold tight to the earth. The rain now pounded down on the roof, and that’s when the light show started. Lightening here is so bright that it will light up the whole sky and leave you momentarily blind, like when you rub your eyes too hard. It’s absolutely incredible. As the storm started winding down, I crawled back into bed and fell asleep to the sound of rain drops on the zinc roof. Yesterday afternoon there was another storm which started just after I was finishing tutoring Sr. Rose. It started slowly, but we didn’t have much time to run from where we were at the school to the house. Once we got there, I changed into dry clothes and continued on to our evening mass in the chapel. The rain was coming down so hard that we were practically yelling at certain times, and it was hard for me to hear which mass part we were in (as it’s in French)! Sr. Gisele then suggest that we pause and close all the doors and windows of the house (with a very open, tropical layout, the doors are often open to let the breeze through). Most were closed except for the door by the kitchen facing the garden, where the wind had whipped open the door and the rain had left a lake. Sr. Gisele ran to grab the squeegee-like mop, and I (very bravely) closed the door. I held the door open a crack as she pushed the water across the floor out the door. [The floors here are smooth concrete, and are cleaned by pushing soap and water across it with the squeegee-looking mop. Quite effective.] They really weren`t making it up when that song was written. It`ll never be the same for me again, haha.