According to our site reports we’re supposed to have monsoon rain every day during December and January, but we’ve had a very dry summer so far, which explains all the spontaneous joy unleashed by our first big storm last week. Kids stripped down and danced in the water, showering in the runoff from our roof and singing and dancing all the while. When it pours, our flat front yard turns into a shallow pool which the youths turned into a slip-n-slide. Even adults were visibly happy. Today got another dose of rainy season weather with persistent drizzle and occasional downpours. Unfortunately in coincides with a visit from two PCVs from dry Namibia on their way through Mozambique to Kenya. We laughed at them bundling up in what they considered cold weather. It is unclear whether this late rain will be enough to avoid a food shortage this year. The corn has grown significantly in the past week, but it is late and many fields dried up before the rain started. The local radio constantly reports on drought conditions, water shortage and food rationing. The UN also increase our food security status to ‘vulnerable.’ For people like us and others with a steady income, it should be fine. The most vulnerable are the subsistence farmers who don’t have cash flow to buy food when their crops don’t produce enough. But most of our neighbors are glad to have late rain rather than no rain. And we are learning what our ‘monsoon’ season should have been like: muddy feet, loud metal roofs that amplify the pounding storms, and even more power shortages, usually right when we start to cook dinner!
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