The rains came down…and the floods went up...

Just when you need a little more time to finish the projects you’ve started…and it starts raining….a lot!! Big big muskalas (problems)! When it starts raining, the soil turns to mud…you can’t drive anywhere…you walk anywhere and you get covered in the stuff…and the mosquito’s decide I’m their best friend... But work has to go on…somehow.

So, I’m sitting here in the dark, because the generator decided it would turn itself off, right in the middle of a really heavy rainstorm…and Prison Break! So we have water flowing (ok, not flowing, but a bit of a stream) through the house and the lights have all gone out. Out come the torches, and up goes everything off the floor. So that was the excitement for about 10 minutes. And then Abigail decides she is going to bed. I was like, but it’s only 20:30. But she’s right. What can you do in the dark? Me, I’m on my laptop, having played Spider Solitaire, whilst worrying about my latrines collapsing and thinking about how I’m going to get my masons to Kilo15 and Shemodi to finish off the latrines…and that I won’t be able to go to Goz Fami to rehabilitate four handpumps (well, not me personally, but you know what I mean). If only God had held off the rains for another two weeks. Just two weeks was all I was asking. The problems I’ve had with latrines…the communities not digging and my contractor disappearing to get married (for three weeks!), so the masons refuse to work because they haven’t got paid. Oh the joys…

The rain has stopped. Thank you God! I just pray the Shem Shedin brick lining is still standing…the school has not done the infill yet, and they suddenly announce that they have no money to carry out the second digging. I could have cried! I never thought motivating people to dig when you’re giving them something for free would be so hard!

Oh no, the rain is starting again. You can hear every drop on these tin roofs. It’s like camping. I actually like the sound, but not when I associate it with visions of my latrines collapsing. Please let them still be standing tomorrow morning. I’ll take some photos to go with this…the field that has become mud…and where there was a road…just drive where you think the mud is…um, not as bad as in other places. Basically, you just see children walking to school and women to the market barefoot, with their sandles in their hands. Why wreck your shoes or loose them in the mud?

Actually, it was quite funny the other day, Assunta (one of our Hygiene Promotion Supervisors) came to work and asked if she could go to the market to buy herself some new shoes…she’d lost them in the mud walking to work. Bless her. So off she went, barefoot, to the market to buy herself a new pair of shoes. I found it quite funny and couldn’t hide my smile – is that really harsh?

I do hope this rain stops soon. I’m having too many sleepless nights worrying about my latrines. I just have to remember that God promised never to flood the earth again. Unfortunately, Renk is not the whole earth! Also, it is Wimbledon at the moment, and everyone knows that when Wimbledon is on, it always rains…a lot!