"It's Raining, It's Pouring, the Old Man is Snoring..."

Yes, yes, yes!  It's RAINING!  A long anticipated rainy morning...and without a dust prelude!  The windows are open and we are soaking in the cool breeze, ignoring the rain splashing in through the screen...the tile floors will dry soon enough.  The beautiful sound of raindrops on the tin roof is music to our ears.  The water pouring off of the roof is a dirty brown color, as the months of accumulated dust gets washed off. We can hear the joyful shouts of the neighbor children as they dance and shiver excitedly in the cool, first rain.  The streets are empty. The neighbors are smiling.  Happy day! Absolutely glorious.

But the "Old Man" is NOT snoring, he's out "playing" in the water!  Actually, he's trying to dislodge mounds of garbage and branches and months of accumulated trash from the drainage canal in front of our house in hopes that the massive amounts of running water will wash it all into the river. Sorry hippos.

With help from our favorite neighbor boy and an old rake, they finally got some of it to move on down the canal.

The neighbor's goats obviously didn't enjoy the rain as much as we did.  They stood perfectly still with their noses pressed against the wall.  What fun is that! 

The neighbor kids love to run in our yard and "shower" under the water running out of the drain spout from the roof.

Thanks to our gracious God for His gift of rain.

Did I Ever Say It's Hot Here?

What to do when it's 98 degrees inside the house and 110 degrees outside with no electricity to run fans and no water to take a shower? It's time to go outside the walls where everyone else is!

Since my neighbor was working on her embroidery, I picked up mine and joined her.

The slight breeze outside, as well as the company, helped the time to pass more pleasantly.

The busy highway and well-traveled sidewalk in front of our house also lends itself to many interesting sights (and pictures) and mini-conversations with passers-by.

The houses across the street from us: 

 With the water shortages, these yellow/orange 5 gallon jugs are a common sight all over town. We keep a stock of water on hand for those long water outages.

The neighbor boy was filling them at his spigot and then taking them to sell to those without water in their courtyard.

Camels are a common sight along with the cars and motorcycles.

This moto was getting a serious cleaning.  The wheels were scrubbed until they looked like new.

 The walking clothes rack vendor passed by.

 Always scores of kids...

Tom's favorite sight--the closest he gets to seeing farming.

 Delivery of new furniture to someone down the road.

These hot days too will pass.  It's easy to whine and complain when there are many hours/days without electricity.   The rains should be starting soon.