The Rainy Season

We’re at the heart of the rainy season here in Jamaica. For a while every afternoon, right on schedule, dark ballooning clouds would quickly roll overhead accompanied by some distant rumbling and dump down buckets of water. Then every afternoon turned to every morning. On Thursday it just didn’t stop. All day. All night. Flash flood warnings for parts of the island were in effect.

I love a good rain storm, don’t get me wrong. An excuse to stay inside and be lazy. Or grab a sweater and marvel from the comfort of a porch. Meg has a great porch for this. But by now the excitement and novelty of it all is wearing thin, and I’m ready for rainy season to be over.

For one thing, there are the mosquitoes, which seem to have a special love for foreigners. We’ve kept our bedroom windows shut for over 2 weeks now. They get you while you sleep. I’ve learned to be able to sleep with a sheet over my head.

All the rain creates havoc on the roads, more than usual. Flooding some roads down to one lane, traffic backed up for hours. The taxi rides home long, hot and stuffy. The drivers more irritable and reckless.

I carry an umbrella with me now everywhere I go now (I learned that lesson the hard way). Trying to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible when the rain lets up for a moment. Dodging the rivers running down the street sides, and spray from passing vehicles, inevitably getting wet.

All of our weekend beach days so far have been cut short. Still enjoyable, but Meg is getting concerned about my lack of a tan. She’s embarrassed to send me home this way, even though I tell her not to worry, I have 10 more months for that.

End of November? Two weeks from now? No one’s really sure when rainy season will be over, but most people are ready for it. They say Jamaicans hate the rain – to the point that they won’t go out in it, to work, school, wherever. Events will be canceled, even indoor ones , due to rain. I use to wonder, now I understand.

Thursday, however, I didn’t mind the rain so much. I woke feeling groggy, lazy, stuffed up, under the weather so to speak. I hadn’t slept well and was battling with a second bout of some unpleasant indigestion. Actually, more like was at the mercy of.

Thursdays I go to a highschool close by, see 2 students, and then teach a swimming lesson in an outdoor pool, weather permitting. I was hoping it wouldn’t.

When I was suppose to head out the door, it started to downpour like mad. I thought I’d just wait it out and then (begrudgingly) make a dash for it at a calmer moment. However, I soon realized that the rain had little intention of letting up, even for a second. I consulted Meg. No taxis on the road anyway, by the time you get there, you’ll be soaked, get more sick, late, have to come home, teachers and students probably aren’t even there, swimming is obviously canceled, no point going.

Glee!! My first rain day! A legitimate day off in Jamaica. Just as good as getting snowed in on an exam day! well at the moment it felt so. I spent the rest of the day enjoying the rain from the dry indoors/porch, drinking tea, playing guitar, reading the paper and doing the crossword with Meg and April. Periodically darting to the bathroom. And feeling only minorly guilty for not going to work, which I quickly dismissed as a difference in cultural work ethic mentality.