it is raining goats & chickens

     In America when it is raining very hard, we sometimes say, “it is raining cats & dogs.” But what does one say when they live in Africa and it has been raining for almost 2.5 months straight??? “It is raining goats & chickens”??? Oh, who really cares anyway…but now that we are on the topic of rain…It has been raining here in Guinea almost every day for the past 2.5 months! It has been a new adventure experiencing rainy season this way…normally I am on the ship…floating in the water…and the rain doesn’t really influence my commute to work…or my life….but oh, the adventures rain can bring…
*****Laundry is almost impossible to get dry. My team and I hang our clothing outside at any glimmer of blue sky. Almost as soon as the laundry is hung, torrential rains coming pouring down. We rush to move our laundry in-doors and drape it over every stool, chair, and raised surface in the house; we have even resorted to laying it on the cool tile floor. We point the few fans we have at the clothing and hope for the best. Then the power goes out, forget the fan idea, we are left with wet clothing hanging in the humid air. As the day goes on, the less than sweet aroma of “wet dog” begins to fill the air! Oh- bless! My once excited feeling over freshly washed clothing has disappeared. I sniff each article of clothing before I put it on and decided if perfume will cover-up the smell or not…what fun! It is all about perspective….Once upon a time, a shirt was deemed only fit for the laundry pile if it smelt of body odor or was visibly soiled, not any more… Now that same BO engulfed shirt smells like heaven compared to the lingering smell of “wet dog!” The only question that remains is to wash the clothing or not was the clothing…lately I have been going with the latter.
*****With rain being our constant companion, my team and I have come to only one conclusion…no point complaining about it….play in it! I mostly definitely was caught the other night outside my house here around 10:00pm dressed in swimming shorts, an old t-shirt, and rain boots, jumping in the puddles in the street while getting a refreshing shower from the heavens. My buddy and I stood waiting by the biggest puddles in the street waiting for cars to come by and splash the daylights out of us! We were sorely disappointed that only one car took us up on the offer to splash us! We were hoping people wouldn’t see us near the puddles and would keep driving at full speed and spray us with a wall of water, but we figured out we don’t blend in to the dark very well considering “we glow in the dark” as one of my African friends told me, when talking about my flaxen skin tone. We did get drenched & had a wild good time in the process! Maybe not the brightest idea in the book…but too late now…Dear Jesus, please forgive my moment lapse of judgment as I was just looking for some clean good fun…and I forgot the puddles I was jumping and splashing around in might have been sewage laden…
*****A day at the swimming pool is always fun! And why should one avoid the pool if it is raining, you get wet in the pool anyway, so what’s a little more water? If there isn’t lightening, why not have a really good, wet time? The other day we put that exact philosophy to practice. I took the role of camera woman as my two of my team members jumped into the pool in the pouring rain, in their swim suits, and rain boots just to for a fashion statement. Rain boots are supposed to get wet…so why not jump in a swimming pool with them? We laughed and laughed as they attempted to do handstands in the pool with boots on their feet, as soon as they got their feet up in the air, water would coming pouring out of the boot and knock them over.
*****And finally, back to those puddles again…some of the puddles in the street have been knee deep. The local cars and taxis struggle to traverse around the city when the rain persists. I on the other hand….am blessed to drive a brand-new land-rover that was donated to Mercy Ships and shipped here for my team’s use. I had some fun driving like wild through some awesome, deep puddles in town the other day. One of the puddles was so fantastic; my friend got out, sacrificed herself to the rains, and took photos of me driving through the muddy ocean…
*****Oh-what fun and adventures rainy season in Africa can bring... “I bless the rains down in Africa…I bless the rains down in Africa…Africa, “it’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you…there’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do…I bless the rains down in Africa… I bless the rains down in Africa…”