When it Rains in a Dry Weather Country

In other countries, rain is rain; save those countries which have ‘rainy seasons’. There, the expectation is that there will be  more flooding than wetting, precautions are taken.

Years ago, when Jamaica was a colony, when there was some kind of organisation as to where people could live and how to protect gulleys and culverts, flooding wasn’t a constant.   Gulleys were constantly cleaned, culverts checked, and river beds were dug down during the dry season to insure the run off water would have a place to go when the rain started.

Today, if it rains for one hour, various roads, major roads become impassable, gulleys over run and flood communities, and it is as major at a six foot snow fall is in modern cities.

Jamaica had a drought last year.   I prayed for rain, and must have over prayed because then it began to rain.  It has virtually rained every day.

Most times I get a ‘window’; from about  eight in the morning until about one in the afternoon when there is a sun in the sky and sky is blue.  Then, these enormous angry clouds pile up and the rain starts.

Sometimes it is for an hour, sometimes longer.

Yesterday was clear; then it began to rain, but stopped.  This morning, from the moment I woke up until about an hour ago, it had stopped, so I got to run out with the garbage, and it has started again.

Obviously, I am not to wash, nor leave the yard.

Unlike other places, where people live easily with their umbrellas and booties, and everything runs the same with pre rain as it does rain, in Jamaica, rain is a disruption.

A major disruption.

Some schools close, some public transportation ceases, and everything is skewed.

Although it rains and usually from about April to May and October to November rain is expected, it really has not been addressed.

So, here I am, locked in looking out, hoping tomorrow the sun with shine.