Describing a good storm... (and yes, that implies there are wimpy storms)

First it starts with a VERY hot day. Now that the weather has been slightly cooling (100's?) it's easier to tell an extra hot day. Funny to me that the heat can really predict a storm.

Sometimes out of nowhere the winds pick up. I can't even begin to describe the sounds- maybe I'll take a video next time. The tin roof gets unbelievably loud and ripples (weak word) and sounds, literally, as though it will blow OFF any second. The sand blowing (also weak word) across the roof sounds almost like rain, but we can usually tell a difference. Last night's storm I literally was covering myself hoping the roof above me wasn't going to blow away.

As you lie there in bed, you try to decide if it's really worth getting up to close windows, and then the smell of dust and the crunch in your teeth makes you decide otherwise. We have sort of shutter-like windows that you push up to close and down to open- no glass windows. This means that if you have lights on or it's during the day, you still see the dust blowing in- a sort of foggy look to the air for awhile. Inevitably it's usually the day after the house has been cleaned. A thick brown layer now covers everything.

Sometimes the winds stop for a brief moment, often the power goes out. At night, this leaves a deafening silence and the darkest pitch black dark that I have experienced.

A crack of thunder, another, and then a downpour. Or at first, it sounds like a downpour on our (strong) tin roof, but a sprinkle sounds louder than a HUGE storm at home. As it picks up strength, the roof, again, sounds as though it will soon end up a mile away.

This storm, as I laid in bed listening (and laughing) I felt a sprinkle or two. As it got harder, I started getting wet!! A great muddy combination on the floors. I thought the roof was leaking (which does happen, and Ruth marks the spot with a big chalk circle on the cement floor so we can find it again) but turned out that the rain was pouring in my windows (the side of the house the wind was attacking at that moment). This meant that for the second time in a few weeks, my desk- all my books and papers and everything- were covered in water dots (on top of the dust that came first).

Soon, the winds calm, but if it's the middle of the night like last, it's too late. We're all awake and sitting in the living room. Can't talk because it's too loud though. Yelling cannot be heard. Ruth made some decaf coffee and settled in with a book.

The blessing of these stroms is the incrediblly cool temeratures the rains bring in. The irony is that all the windows have to be closed so once opened, takes almost as long to cool down the house as it does for temperatures to heat up again.

As the rain lightens, I fall onto my bed, too tired to be very annoyed (for more than a second) by the layer of sandy dust that covers my bed.

WAWA -- West Africa wins again...


A servant for Him,
~Liz