The Rains in Africa....

Oh the joys of rainy season! It seems like every year this season gets a little bit longer. Although i do love the rain, I just had no idea what a rain storm was until i moved here. When it rains in africa it POURS!! Not the kind of rain that i used to love, the kind where you go outside and enjoy getting sprinkled on, here its the kind of rain that you walk outside for no more then 5 seconds and you might as well have jumped in a pool because you are that soaked.

I was rudely reminded of that this week a few times. We have spent the last week working in the bush again with one of our machines. We'd been out there all day in the heat, not a cloud in sight. I could feel a sunburn coming on so i went and put on sunscreen. No more then 20 mins later all the sudden we hear a crack of thunder and the rain instantly comes pouring down. Just like in a movie i swear! We were absolutely drenched, running around trying to get all of our tools and equipment locked up because we still had a 20 min hike out of the bush and we were worried our truck would get stuck on the tiny dirt road that were quickly turning into a mud pit. Thank goodness we left when we did because the river that we laid a tree over so we could cross that morning was filling up soo fast and would have washed our "bridge" away if we'd left 30 mins later. I seriously couldn't believe how fast everything was filling up. Some parts of the hike we were walking with water half way up our calves and it seriously had only been raining like 45 mins! We got to the truck soaked to the bone only to be greeted by about 15 men from the village waiting for us so they could hitch a ride back into town. They all piled in the back which i didn't mind because they would come in handy if we really did get stuck! We made it back into town though only to be welcomed by a cold shower and then wake up the next day to be chased out of the bush again by pouring rain.

We have had many memorable adventures in the rain. Last valentines days jeff thought it would be fun to take an okada ride to the beach. So off we went. We walked around for a bit, trying to dodge all the garbage and sewage covering the beach (romantic hey) then we saw the dark clouds rolling in. We quickly jumped back on the okada and tried to beat the storm back to the nice restaurant jeff was taking me to. Of course, we got stuck in the middle of the down pour. Because of the lack of drainage systems in the streets of Lagos, the streets started filling up fast. Pretty soon we were lifting our legs up trying to keep them out of the dirty sewage water and praying that we didn't have to stop moving so we didn't have to put our feet down. We still can't forget the man we saw walking on the sidewalk, knee deep in water only to suddenly disappear into the open sewer. He was definitely a little surprised when he popped back up gasping for air. It was soo unfortunate but jeff and i still laugh about it. We made it to the restaurant though. Jeff proved his love for me when we were forced to stop in traffic therefore putting his feet down into the dirty water. When we finally made it to the restaurant we made absolute fools of ourselves walking into a nice place soaking wet and leaving a trail of muddy water behind us. I don't think they appreciated the pool of water they had to step over every time they came to serve us at our table. Too bad we were too hungry to care that much.....



This is the road to church at its best during rainy season. Who knows what pot holes are lurking underneath all that water....



If your lucky and have 4 wheel drive you may make it out okay, if not you may look like this....




I wish i had a picture of the car beside this one that luckily made it out then pulled over to celebrate and opened his trunk to find nothing but water....then proceeded to open his back door and watch the water all come pouring out....

This is our yard during raining season......nothing but a sick swamp. You may or may not see customer being escorted around the yard in the bucket of a loader. Really professional i know!!



Like i said oh the joys of rainy season! You never know when the rain will suddenly strike. I can't complain too much though. Business usually slows down a bit since contract work can't go on in the rain so two weeks ago we decided last minute after finding cheap tickets we would take off to South Africa. We've wanted to go on this trip since the day we moved here and just haven't had the time. Now that the rains are falling we decided that its now or never! So Saturday we fly out! I just hope its not raining there!! So there definitely are perks to this season too!