Still no rain yet, huh?"
"Still no rain. Who knows when it's going to come" my host dad, a rice farmer replied. This was a typical lunchtime conversation earlier this month as the days ticked by with still no rain and yet the days got hotter and hotter.
...And then one day it happened. I was teaching my 5eme I class about numbers when all of a sudden I hear the all too familiar "TING!" of a raindrop hitting the steel roof. Then "TING...TING TING...TING TING TING!" And then just a deafening drumming as the sky lets loose and unleashes the long awaited first rains. All the students at this point have completely lost concentration and have become mesmerized with watching the rain out the windows. A few even clap in excitement knowing how much this rain was needed. I shrug my shoulders then I too head to the door to watch and appreciate the spectacle that has announced to us all the official beginning of rainy season.
For some though (myself included at times), rainy season only elicits feelings of dread. Clothes never drying after being washed. Solar panels never fully charged. Leaky roofs. Roads becoming impassable muddy streams. Being wet. All. The. Time.
But as I reflect on my experience with rainy season from last year, the memories that stand out the most are ones of joy. There's the memories of running barefoot home from school with a gaggle of girls giggling as they trail right behind me. There were the days everyone wakes up and finds their friends to go walk to the bridge to see how flooded the river got overnight. It was the times I got caught in downpours and had to take shelter in a strangers house and was able to leave as new friends. It was the moments I sat on my porch and watched the storm roll in as I ate lychees. Or the days in class where I just have to scrap my lesson and laugh because my students can't hear a word I was trying to say.
Sure, rainy season has its downfalls, but if done right, with the right attitude, it can also be an incredibly beautiful time of year.
