Rainy Season

01/12/08

It has been raining now almost steadily for the past week with no let up in sight. I think we are finally into the rainy season. The nice thing about the rainy season is that the temperature drops whenever it rains. The bad thing is that when it stops and the sun works its magic, you are immersed in a pressure cooker. You sweat just sitting. Your clothes feel damp all the time. You are almost grateful for the next shower.

For Samoans, this is a time for children to play in the puddles and run in the downpours. For other Samoans, it is a time for long shelves shirts and jackets. They say this in the cold season. For us, it is time to just lie around and read. The village is just exhausted from having relatives live with them and drained from the fa'alavelaves. There really isn’t much else to do, except watch my cabbage and cucumbers grow.

This is also prime cyclone season (hurricanes south of the equator). The Peace Corps office called to say two storms were in the Pacific, one south of Tonga and the other south of Fiji, but posed no danger to Samoa. We should listen to our radios for hourly updates. Great advice. Of course, we have no radio!

Next thing they will tell us is that buttered microwave popcorn is bad for our health. Of course, we have no buttered microwave popcorn. No microwave either. You can never be too careful or fearful.