The Flood

A coworker of Michael and Amber swears the rainy season always begins officially on May 22^nd. That is the day that every year the rain begins. This year was no different. Friday night we were inundated with lightning, thunder, and more rain than a Midwesterner could imagine. I’ve seen rain, lots of it. I’ve slept in it, sung in it, danced in it, and I’d never seen rain this. We were visiting friends, Joe and Kelly, when the rain started and lasted a few hours. The road flooded and Joe set out about 6 buckets under leaks in the roof to catch the dripping sometimes streaming water. When we got home around 11pm we found our whole street dark and wet. The power was out everywhere. I stepped through the doorway into a huge puddle of water. Apparently the patio in the back had flooded. Most of the house had been filled with two to four inches of water. Amber was the only one home that evening. She did what she could to save stuff on the floor: laptops, guitars, books, etc. Not everything could be saved and everything was hot and damp. The power didn’t come on until midday on Saturday. That night was one of the muggiest, stickiest, grossest nights of sleep...ever. My bed was wet from water dripping from the roof. The temperature all night never dropped below the upper 70s or lower 80s. It was so humid that my sweat saturated everything and glistened in the middle of night. I devoted most of Saturday to cleaning and drying. Oh, and I almost forgot, the rain must have agitated the creepy crawly inhabitants in the house. In the middle of the night I woke to Michael yelling because a mouse fell on him from the rafter above his head. Gross. It was the night from hell. Luckily, everything is basically back to normal, still hot and humid, but under control. We also unclogged the blockage in the drain. No more floods—I hope.

In other news, things at work last week were really good. I started taking the first graders to the computer lab instead of staying with them in the class room. This is way easier for me because the lab teacher is in charge and all I have to do is help and watch the kids. Also, I started helping the phys ed. teacher coach volleyball. As you’ve probably realized from previous posts, I don’t feel particularly qualified for this position. However, it’s been really good to work side by side with my Nicaraguan coworker instead of coaching alone. The kids I’m meeting too are really great. I have had really good conversations with them and am building confianza with them. (Confianza means trust but also a sense of comfort, closeness, and mutual respect.)

This weekend is shaping out to be pretty low key. My stipend was exhausted early this month so I’ve been laying low and relaxing at home. This morning I watched one of my favorite movies, A River Runs Through It. I recently read an article about a new movie coming out that reminds me on of A River Runs Through It, called The River Way. I’m interested in reading the book. Have any of you read it? I recently read Angela’s Ashes and ‘Tis both by Frank McCourt. Currently I am reading Middlesex. I’m about 100 pages in and find the descriptive prose to be poetic and very imaginative.