November 7, 2008 3:51 PM
Today was rainy. Very rainy. I woke up in the middle of the night to rain pounding on the roof, and this time it was pounding…and continued to pound well past the time when my phone was chiming "wake up for work" - it doesn't really say that but I prefer that than the annoying noise it does make. So when I finally lost the debate in my head about whether or not it would be ok to call in sick to work because of rain…I rolled out from under the mosquito net and decided that bringing my laundry to work today was probably not a good idea. Couldn't really see the possibility of someone washing my clothes in the rain to hang them in the rain where they could (not) dry in the rain.
The walk to work was eventful as any walk to work in the rain should be. Did I mention it was raining? The road was mud. Muddy mud. I had on my rain coat and my trusty umbrella, so I wasn't really worried about the wet, just the falling on my butt into the mud. I also feared any motorized vehicle choosing to take my road at any moment while I was maneuvering my way toward Mkombozi.
Well I thought it was scary and raining in Moshi…then I went to Longido. Wow. I think because the village is situated closer to the base of Mount Longido than Moshi is to Kilimanjaro the rain rushes down more. Tuesday night Emily and I attempted to climb up to the tents from the house a few times before there was a window of blue sky large enough not to scare us back behind the closed door. The rain just comes down, comes down with so much force you would think there would be a flood. Which there was a small one last week. Its not my story to tell, but the Longido group was on their way to dinner last week when the jeep got stuck in the mud for 3 hours. I saw where it was and can only imagine what that part of the road would look like with a meter of water covering it.
The rain also causes some differences in social norms, which I may have invented but have not a huge choice in the matter. Because now it is almost impossible to determine when exactly the rains will be coming it makes it very difficult to wash any clothes. I think I just went 2 weeks without doing laundry. Thankfully today it is nice and hot and sunny (which means it will probably rain later) and it happens to be the same day a nice woman comes to clean my house. So hopefully she has hung my clean clothes outside so I can rush home after work to pluck them off the line and fold them before the rain makes them wet again.
Tuesday I had just hung my tank top and pants outside when Emily got home from teaching her afternoon English class and said "I think it might rain", in the time it took me to realize what that meant and rush outside the first drops were falling. I think that might be why they have a laundry line set up on the inside of the house.
On a side note, I did have a very exciting pee outside the tents the other night under my umbrella. How many people do you know have peed outside a tent in Tanzania under a flowered umbrella bought out of necessity in NYC?
Today was rainy. Very rainy. I woke up in the middle of the night to rain pounding on the roof, and this time it was pounding…and continued to pound well past the time when my phone was chiming "wake up for work" - it doesn't really say that but I prefer that than the annoying noise it does make. So when I finally lost the debate in my head about whether or not it would be ok to call in sick to work because of rain…I rolled out from under the mosquito net and decided that bringing my laundry to work today was probably not a good idea. Couldn't really see the possibility of someone washing my clothes in the rain to hang them in the rain where they could (not) dry in the rain.
The walk to work was eventful as any walk to work in the rain should be. Did I mention it was raining? The road was mud. Muddy mud. I had on my rain coat and my trusty umbrella, so I wasn't really worried about the wet, just the falling on my butt into the mud. I also feared any motorized vehicle choosing to take my road at any moment while I was maneuvering my way toward Mkombozi.
Well I thought it was scary and raining in Moshi…then I went to Longido. Wow. I think because the village is situated closer to the base of Mount Longido than Moshi is to Kilimanjaro the rain rushes down more. Tuesday night Emily and I attempted to climb up to the tents from the house a few times before there was a window of blue sky large enough not to scare us back behind the closed door. The rain just comes down, comes down with so much force you would think there would be a flood. Which there was a small one last week. Its not my story to tell, but the Longido group was on their way to dinner last week when the jeep got stuck in the mud for 3 hours. I saw where it was and can only imagine what that part of the road would look like with a meter of water covering it.
The rain also causes some differences in social norms, which I may have invented but have not a huge choice in the matter. Because now it is almost impossible to determine when exactly the rains will be coming it makes it very difficult to wash any clothes. I think I just went 2 weeks without doing laundry. Thankfully today it is nice and hot and sunny (which means it will probably rain later) and it happens to be the same day a nice woman comes to clean my house. So hopefully she has hung my clean clothes outside so I can rush home after work to pluck them off the line and fold them before the rain makes them wet again.
Tuesday I had just hung my tank top and pants outside when Emily got home from teaching her afternoon English class and said "I think it might rain", in the time it took me to realize what that meant and rush outside the first drops were falling. I think that might be why they have a laundry line set up on the inside of the house.
On a side note, I did have a very exciting pee outside the tents the other night under my umbrella. How many people do you know have peed outside a tent in Tanzania under a flowered umbrella bought out of necessity in NYC?
This is what mud looks like out my bedroom window
During the rain in Longido
1 comment:
Oooo you put up pictures!! Awesome, love the rainbow.
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