Here are several of the thoughts that go through my mind on a rainy day:
1. Oh, it's cozy-- should i check my phone for the time; if its only two or three, I can roll over and enjoy the cozy sound of rain on our tin roof.
2. Did I leave anything outside that I'll regret--- this week I've left the bath mat "drying" outside for too many days only to find it more sopping wet after each rain.
3. If we have home-stay students, I always think of them trying to walk a mile or so to campus-- with all the mess and possible wipe-outs and splashing muddy puddles and arriving to class "unsmart"(Ugandans really value looking "smart"? I say that I think of this, more out of compassion than any real anxiety---I've not heard of any real incident involving a rainy walk to school.
4. This is related to the last point, but I always think of our priority to arrive somewhere on time versus waiting out the rain. I remember a Ugandan friend who was doing research in Norway and said she couldn't believe that you had to get where you were going no matter what level of freezing rain and weather was between you and your destination.
5. So, I think of Edith who helps me with the kids and the house. She lives in a small one room place with her 10 year old son (other kids in boarding school) and she makes it to our house (about one mile) no matter what the rains are like... Recently, i came home and saw small white leathered sandals with heels and said, "edith, did you come in these?" The marvel of how Ugandans navigate the muddy, rocky, uneven roads in unsupportive/unhelpful shoes!
6. Mark showed me some football player winning some award and saying that one of his life ambitions was to build his grandma a house. When he asked his grandma (in the rural South of the US) what kind of house she wanted (the player had millions of dollars), she said, she'd like a house where when it rained she didn't have to wake up wet. So many times when I'm thinking of the "hassle" of rain, the muddy foot prints, the kids pent up inside a bit, the driving in the rain, I pause and think of the majority of the world that wakes up wet when it rains. To complain about inconveniences when most people in the world thank God that they lived each day is a very limited point of view.
7. Rains also is an essential part of any agricultural society--- that said it is a balance; too much rain can be as bad for plants as too little. And too many rains can lead to land slides in places where there is too much erosion.
8. In Uganda, rain on the day of any event is traditionally seen as a "blessing". That said, tomorrow is UCU"s graduation and a library opening with more than a thousand people graduating at a muddy football pitch and a muddy road and 1000 women in evening gowns and stilettos, is hard to exactly conceive of in relation to "blessing"!
Okay, some thoughts that I have on a rainy day!
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