It's Raining Something....but it's not Cats and Dogs

As a 3 year old sister of one of Xavier's friends explained to me yesterday as she looked up at the clouds, there is the "rainy" and the "not rainy" season. After several rain storms in the past week or so and many nights of semi-comfortable sleep without air conditioning, I think it's safe to say that we are now in the "rainy season."


Let's be clear that when it rains here, it's not like in the Northwest US. It's not drizzly with periodic rain showers and a few sun breaks. No, it's an absolute, complete and total biblical opening of the sky deluge, often accompanied by gorgeous and intense flashes of lightning and booming thunder. There is no doubt that it's mother nature in charge and all you can do is hunker down where ever you are and wait for it to pass - which it usually does in 20 minutes to an hour.

So, it shouldn't be surprising that the entire eco-system seems to have changed. The rain seems to be giving life to all sorts of......interesting creatures. There are more varieties of ants than I ever knew existed - large ones with wings that fly around just after the rains, termites that look like they could ingest an entire forest and itsy bisty ants that you can feel on your skin but cannot see unless you have supersonic eyes. Of course, the mosquitoes seem to have multiplied, as evidenced by me having 2 staff out with severe malaria last week. These little guys make it difficult to enjoy the cool evening breeze - even though it feels good to be outside after a nice, cleansing rain, the chance of getting a bite - and malaria - makes the safety of the house and air conditioning look pretty good. And, there are cockroaches. Previous to the rains, cockroaches were an occasional annoyance. Now, the ones that creep out from their hiding spots look like creatures in a sci-fi movie, coming to carry small children away. They are gross and are one of the few creatures that can make me scream like a pre-teen drama queen who's just noticed a fly in her food - I know, because I have a pre-teen drama queen who sometimes keeps her cool with the bugs and other times - like last night at a friends' dinner party - informs the host that there were small bugs in the onions (probably oregano, but the imagination runs wild here). They were cooked – we noted the protein value of bugs and encouraged her to eat up.

So, it's the rainy season. I keep thinking of the phrase "it's raining cats and dogs". Sometimes, I think that would be easier to take than flying ants and mega sized cockroaches.....

(Colleen – sorry if this blog is difficult to “swallow” - we’ll do our best to keep your food bug free when you visit in a couple weeks – xxoo, k)