Introduction to the Rainy Season 101
Everyone has been lamenting that, though this is rainy season period (normally from mid-September), the rains have not yet come. Chalk another one up to global warming and man's poor stewardship of God's creation.
But all that changed this afternoon. The rains came. Oh boy, did they come! Dark skies. Wind. Lightening. Thunder. Torrential downpours. No doubt about it - the rainy season has arrived in Kinshasa!
As a debutant to rainy seasons - this is my first rain of my first rainy season - I thought I would share with you what I have learned so far about rains in the Congo :
1) If you have hung laundry outside on the line to dry and a storm "seems" to be brewing, go, gather up all your clothes and bring them inside. Now!
2) An umbrella is virtually useless in a tropical downpour. I speak from experience. My clothes are still drying.
3) Meetings will be cancelled when it rains. I guess that means that the teaching prepared for today can be used tomorrow. Of course, only if it doesn't rain tomorrow too :)
4) Long skirts and sandals, the normal attire for women here, are not really adapted to this climate. Especially to rainy season.
5) It is virtually impossible to NOT step in puddles.
6) You have no idea, until it rains, just how many leaks you have in your house or your car...
7) The good thing about leaky windows is that when you mop up all the water, it can be recycled to flush the toilet!
That's it for lessons learned from this my introduction to the rainy season in RDC. I can't imagine what other things there will be to discover when I actually leave my house or am caught somewhere else when the heavens open again with rain.
But all that changed this afternoon. The rains came. Oh boy, did they come! Dark skies. Wind. Lightening. Thunder. Torrential downpours. No doubt about it - the rainy season has arrived in Kinshasa!
As a debutant to rainy seasons - this is my first rain of my first rainy season - I thought I would share with you what I have learned so far about rains in the Congo :
1) If you have hung laundry outside on the line to dry and a storm "seems" to be brewing, go, gather up all your clothes and bring them inside. Now!
2) An umbrella is virtually useless in a tropical downpour. I speak from experience. My clothes are still drying.
3) Meetings will be cancelled when it rains. I guess that means that the teaching prepared for today can be used tomorrow. Of course, only if it doesn't rain tomorrow too :)
4) Long skirts and sandals, the normal attire for women here, are not really adapted to this climate. Especially to rainy season.
5) It is virtually impossible to NOT step in puddles.
6) You have no idea, until it rains, just how many leaks you have in your house or your car...
7) The good thing about leaky windows is that when you mop up all the water, it can be recycled to flush the toilet!
That's it for lessons learned from this my introduction to the rainy season in RDC. I can't imagine what other things there will be to discover when I actually leave my house or am caught somewhere else when the heavens open again with rain.
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