obca87 (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} obca87) wrote,@ 2008-06-01 23:38:00 |
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It's raining
It's raining. Right now, as I type this, it's raining. I just went outside and stood in it: it was glorious. And not just a brufa (light rain) but real drops, a shower.
Read the date: June 1st. It's my little neighbors birthday and they had a big party. When I was outside playing with the kids, I noticed it had kinda started to rain. Now, back at home, I go to the back part of the house, which has a tin roof, and you hear the pitter patter of the drops and it's...just...so...beautiful. I'm thankful to have that little tin roof, so that I can know the beauty of rain on a tin roof.
It really is quite miraculous. According to an old man that I once visited in Assomada, in the old days, it used to rain for like 4 or 5 months from June or July to September or October. Now they are lucky to get 3 months: usually the rain starts at the end of July and goes to September.
To broadly generalize the society is still an agrarian mix. While many people have other sources of income, work in the city, remittences from abroad, etc, almost every family has a field and grows crops: corn, peanuts, mangos, papayas, bananas, tomatos, sugar cane, lettuce, even strawberries (which I've seen growing here). All of these crops require water to thrive, and in general, the more the better. As the population continues to increase, so do their demands for water. Plus water equals greenery, the view of which I'm totally missing (the hills around my town get green in the summer, but now are mostly just brown dirt)
Which is why it's so amazing that it's raining. And not just amazing, but almost spiritual. In a country where the rainy season starts later and later, where it's not supposed to rain in June, it is, and it sounds beautiful.
It's raining. Right now, as I type this, it's raining. I just went outside and stood in it: it was glorious. And not just a brufa (light rain) but real drops, a shower.
Read the date: June 1st. It's my little neighbors birthday and they had a big party. When I was outside playing with the kids, I noticed it had kinda started to rain. Now, back at home, I go to the back part of the house, which has a tin roof, and you hear the pitter patter of the drops and it's...just...so...beautiful. I'm thankful to have that little tin roof, so that I can know the beauty of rain on a tin roof.
It really is quite miraculous. According to an old man that I once visited in Assomada, in the old days, it used to rain for like 4 or 5 months from June or July to September or October. Now they are lucky to get 3 months: usually the rain starts at the end of July and goes to September.
To broadly generalize the society is still an agrarian mix. While many people have other sources of income, work in the city, remittences from abroad, etc, almost every family has a field and grows crops: corn, peanuts, mangos, papayas, bananas, tomatos, sugar cane, lettuce, even strawberries (which I've seen growing here). All of these crops require water to thrive, and in general, the more the better. As the population continues to increase, so do their demands for water. Plus water equals greenery, the view of which I'm totally missing (the hills around my town get green in the summer, but now are mostly just brown dirt)
Which is why it's so amazing that it's raining. And not just amazing, but almost spiritual. In a country where the rainy season starts later and later, where it's not supposed to rain in June, it is, and it sounds beautiful.
