Friday, February 3, 2017

Rain

So I have become someone who always annoys me - people who have a blog and don't keep it updated. So sorry, I have a good reason and I will use this reason to write a blog post.

Life here in Kenya has become normal, when I arrived in Kenya years ago everything was different and exciting. From new language, a different culture, a different hospital and different responsibilities. All of this gave plenty of material to blog about. I have not blogged about it all but it now seems normal. When visitors come and get excited about the baboons on the side of the road or are dismayed by the high number of suicide attempts or I explain to a guest what we should and don't have to use filtered water for, it is all just normal life now.

Writing about normal life is boring. I keep reminding myself that even though I find my life boring (as in normal) it may still be interesting to you. So I will write about something so normal here but it still makes me shake my head. That is RAIN.

When you read about Kenya in guide books or online you will read about the rainy season and the dry season. How the rains come March through  June and August through October, or maybe about the December short rains. That the rest is dry. However this is crazy in my experience - it rains most weeks, except January, January is dry unless it rains. Why you may ask?  Two reasons: first Tenwek is at a high altitude and therefore gets more rains, second is climate change, now I don't want to get in to an argument about global warming but in Kenya the weather has gone from predictable to unpredictable. The locals tell me they used to be able to say what day the rains would start, now it's just confusing.

So those of you who think I live in a dreary wet drizzly climate couldn't be farther from the truth. Here when it rains - it pours, maybe for 5 min maybe for an hour but then the sun comes out again. I am sure there is a five degree difference between rain and no rain.

SO how does rain affect life here:

Because when it rains it pours - never, ok rarely, a little drizzle - no one goes anywhere. You wait. I have come home for lunch and had my lunch extended by 20 min waiting for the rain to stop, it never rains for long. A walk to the hospital even with an umbrella and I could get drenched.
Some days at the hospital it may be slow for me and I think one more thing and then I will work on things at home, then it starts to pour so I work longer or vice versa, if it has been an on and off rainy afternoon I may go home early if there is a break in the rain. Or there are days like yesterday where I decide to run home in the rain and get completely soaked. You know the type of soaked where you don't even walk through the house but are thankful you live alone and the curtains are closed so you leave the wet clothes in the entrance.

I don't complain about the rain, it's normal and as a farm girl I know about the importance of rain. Much of Kenya right now is experiencing a drought. So while the rains have started here at Tenwek (it's no longer January) parts of the country remain dry. So join me in praying for rain for those suffering from drought.

How's that I don't write for months and then all I talk about is rain? Pathetic, I know.