What the Rainy Season Means to Me

So while back at home, the weather is getting brisker, and the leaves are changing color, down here its just starting to rain harder. The month of October brings the heaviest rains of the year, and it’s a almost a guarantee that it will rain for at least a few hours each day. It could be sunny and beautiful out in the morning, and in the afternoon it’s torrentially down pouring. Or vice versa. Well yesterday, that deception beautiful day got the best of me. I went to lass, without even thinking about bringing a rain jacket or umbrella, and it wasn’t until the last 5 minutes of class when the skies started to darken. Hoping for the best, I started my hour long walk back to my house, hoping that the storm would wait for me, or pass me by to the north. Well, I realized about 5 minutes into my walk that I wasn’t going to make it home dry. I could literally see the rain fail sprinting towards my direction, and with little to no cover around, all I could do was brace myself. Within minutes, I was soaked to the bone, my only option just to keep walking. At that point I was so wet, it didn’t make a difference.

Naturally, the only thing I could think about was the rain; in that state its hard to think of anything else. The question that kept popping into my head was, “What does the rainy season mean to me? How am I affected by it?” When it rains everyday, it’s more a matter of preparing yourself for the inevitable.

Quick side note: There are no weather forecasts down here, at least officially. The news stations actually film a computer screen to give its audience a weather forecast. That technology, or at least the money to fund it, hasn’t seemed to make it down here yet. Therefore, you decide what the weather will be like later in the day by looking at the sky to the east. Through the majority of the year, if it’s cloudy, it’s probably going to rain, and if its clear skies, you’re in for a hot day. But around this time of year, no matter how the skies look to the east…it’s gonna rain.

So back to the question, “what does the rainy season mean to me?” First and most directly, it means I can expect more days like yesterday, where I get soaked through. Rain jacket and waterproof boots or not, you’re bound to get wet if you’re standing exposed for more than a few minutes. I thought my tattoo was in a pretty concealed spot, but who knew that kaki is practically see through when wet? I’m not even safe in my house as I recently found out. There are plenty of holes in the roof and cracks in the wall that allow rain to enter. It’s sort of like walking through a maze in my house when it really is raining hard, to stay on dry ground. Apparently, there were a lot more wholes than I realized when I “repaired and patched” up my roof.

Second, and more significantly, the heavy rains of October mean that it is competition season here in La Villa and the culmination of a years work in the Nica school system. The school year here goes from February to the end of November, but for all intensive purposes, my work in the schools ends at the end of October, for glaring flaws in the educational system here, as well as the effects of municipal elections in the beginning of November. If the elections are as fraudulent as they were 5 years ago, I can expect extended school cancellations. So for that reason, we do are best to get the municipal and regional competitions done before that. To make that happen, a lot goes into planning and organizing, and as I’ve found out this year, I not only enjoy planning big events like this, but I’ve found I’m pretty good at it to (to toot my own horn). But this time around I took a different takt. The name of the game after all down here is sustainability, so if I’m running and organizing everything, what will happen next year, when I’m not around. So about two weeks ago, myself and my 7 counterparts sat down in the same room to plan the competition down to the T. I would pose a question or problem, sit back, and just watch my profes discuss and debate. Really interesting to observe, and after an hour, we walked out of the classroom with every detail agreed upon. That isn’t to say that I’m not busy. There is still tons of work to do around here, and I’ve been scrambling around non-stop these past few weeks preparing students for their presentations, editing business plans, and helping to plan/attending the local business competitions in each institute. So although it’s a lot of work and traveling, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The next post, more likely than not will be photos of the local competitions that are in the upcoming week!