If You're Like Me...

and you think weather is pretty boring, this might be a post you want to skip. That said, I've tried to make it interesting. Plus... there are pictures.

The rainy season in Venda, and I think South Africa in general, is in October and November. This October, the rainy season has made a poor showing, with only the occasional ominous cloud in the morning and sometimes a rather pathetic misting from which you actually emerge pretty much dry. South Africa, and much of Africa, is experiencing a pretty serious drought. I’ve heard it’s been going on for a couple months now. The year’s water supply depends on these two months and October was a huge let down. The Thohoyandou dam is very low and for much of the area, water is limited to the work day.

In general, I am opposed to rain. Not in an ecological way; I am aware that rain is important. But a rainy day will never be a productive day. Rain makes longs strolls uncomfortable, and I’m opposed to anything that inhibits the strolling. Now, I wish for rain. Dark clouds are on the receiving end of a collective urging – we will them to precipitation. We watch the sky and hope. Seriously, when it gets cloudy, I sometimes think to myself: “please let the dam fill”. I have never had this relationship with rain.

Last Wednesday, a 41° C day (that’s a sliver less than 106° F), sitting at your desk doing nothing was enough to have you languishing in your own sweat. Seriously, everyone wore this limpid look on their face, and I saw more than one computer screen with an abandoned solitaire game on it. Naheed, a coworker and I were sitting in our “Emotional Support” office, suffering from the heat. And then the sky darkened. The three of us mobbed the open window. We sat on the sill with our legs swung over the side, leaning forward, waiting. And then, in a lazy, noncommittal way, these huge drops of rain began to fall. A slight wind picked up. It was delicious. I can’t really name very many situations in which I’ve shared in communal jubilance, and certainly not over something so mundane. But that was it. That was the feeling: jubilant.

This weekend it rained. Not a brief shower either. Naheed and I slept in til 7 am (I’ve been waking up to jog at 5 am to beat the heat). When we finally got up, we found ourselves in the midst of a full-on downpour, with thunder, lightening – the works. So we abandoned the workout routine. I MacGyvered us a coffee filter and made some strong coffee (big shout out to Mike, for the coffee), which we ate with some lemon cookies – leftovers from the Eid feast we had the day before. Sipping quality coffee, nibbling on lemon cookies, watching the rain – it was wonderful. And utterly unproductive. I was so enthused about the whole thing that I obsessively took photographs – ala my Japanese home stay father (if he were reading this, he would not disagree).

As insinuated above, it is crazy hot. It’s regularly in the 40°s C (above 103° F) and I’ve been told it can get to 45° C (113° F). Now the people of Venda are definitely used to this heat, but bitching about the weather is like a universal topic of banter. It can be used as a greeting… or to revive a conversation when there’s a lull.

Unfortunately, when it’s this hot, I can’t leave my bedroom door open because these two inch flying monster cockroaches will fly in. As a rule, I’m not afraid of bugs (save for ants, whose organization and highly advanced systems terrify me in that abstract someday-they-might-take-over-the-world-ala-that-MacGyver-episode sort of way), but these big boys are intimidating. They seem pretty content to just sit in one place for hours, but they’ll definitely fly up into your face if you get too close. And I have this vaguely Jain attitude toward bugs; who am I to kill something just because it looks funky to me? I’ve only lost track of one in my actual bedroom, I definitely share my bathroom with them. In the beginning, I used to loudly announce my entry into the bathroom, expressing my sincere desire not to hurt them and imploring them not to move. But now… it’s whatever. Sometimes you just gotta go, you know.

I should get points for mentioning MacGyver twice in one posting.