The Rains Down in Africa

~Whoever has only one garment does not wash it when it rains. ~

African Proverb

Of course, on the day I finally decide to do my laundry, Mother Nature brings a torrential downpour to town. Kpalime is perhaps 'the Seattle of Togo,' but the rain here is different than back at home. In Kpalime it doesn’t rain all day, but when it does rain, it pours! In Puget Sound it’s more of a continuous rain that can last all day long. Growing up, there were times when I hated the rain, like when it would mess with our spring tennis season. Nevertheless, I’ve come to love the rain, and I always enjoy falling asleep to the sound of the rain on my roof. The last few days we have received some serious rain in Kpalime, knocking out my power and making so much noise that it's hard to hear everything else around me.

The other day I went to the market with my site mate, Gracie, another volunteer here in Kpalime. Out of the blue, it started to pour, so we quickly took cover under a little roadside stand with about five other Togolese people. It was raining so hard we could barely hear each other. While waiting for it to slow down, all I could think about was the laundry I had done that morning, which I had left hanging to dry. Finally, when the rain lightened up a little, Gracie and I decided to catch motos home. Let me just say that there is nothing like a rainy, muddy ride on the back of a moto while there is thunder and lightning all around you. Yikes. When I got back to my house, I was completely shocked to see that my amazing, kind neighbor, Vera, had taken down my dry laundry and put it in a bucket on my front porch. What an awesome surprise!

When I was younger, my mom and I would sit out on our front porch during lightning storms; they fascinated me. It was so much fun! However, now that I’m living all alone, I have to admit that getting woken up by the crack of lightning and rain crashing down on my tin roof really freaks me out. On the flip side, the rain and the mountains are what keep Kpalime so green and beautiful. The storms might make me a little frightened at night sometimes and get my shoes muddy during my morning runs, but the view of the mountains and forest from my house makes up for it ten fold.

In other news, I’ve learned that school won’t be starting for another couple of weeks because of salary negotiations between teachers and the government. This means I have two more weeks to get settled at home and integrate into my community before my teaching schedule starts.