The Challenges of Rain

*photo borrowed from 2008 footage of hurricanes: msnbc.msn.com*

We are still in the midst of the rainy season, and on the tail end of the hurricaine season. As a result, from time to time the sky opens from above emptying its watery cargo over city streets, mountain tops and country plains. Last night we had one such storm that tossed up winds, sweeping rains over the city, smacking lightening and thundering through the sky. The winds drove the rain so vertical that the kitchen floor in our 3rd story apartment was completely flooded. Nothing that a mop and a bucket couldn't handle. However the flooding on the road to Carrefour this morning was more than a little mop job could fix.

As a result of the deforestation and the urbinization of the country, heavy rains wash from mountain top to the valley, coursing their way to the sea. For neighobrhoods in hillier places, rains wash the street of its trash and debris. But the results of such street cleaning were sorely evident during our drive today.

On Wednesdays now, Patrick drives with me to Carrefour, dropping me off at the clinic and proceeding on to Leogane where he spends the morning and early afternoon teaching English in two primary schools and interacting with special needs kids in an orphanage. I enjoy having a one-on-one time with him on the hour drive to Carrefour, discussing thoughts, listening to music, and together observing the vibrant and chaotic life of the streets we drive through. Today we had an eye-full.

The route to Carrefour and Leogane follows the curve of the inner coast of Haiti. The villages that line that coast are prone to flooding due to their position at sea-level, the high water table and to the fact that a large percent of the precipitation falling at higher elevations washes down to the sea, carrying trash and refuse along with it. As a result, the villages along the coast suffer clogged and overflowing sewers, muddied and flooded streets, new mountains of trash, crumbling shoulders along the road-ways and dramatic complications for the daily routine.

*picture borrowed from footage of 2008 hurricanes: teachafrica.net

Our drive today, which normally takes 45 minutes, took nearly 3 hours. We inched along behind bulldozers trying to free gutters clogged with plastic bottles, styrofoam plates, fruit peels and sludge. We joined a procession of vehicles entering lake-like flood plains over the road, watching the muddy water reach over wheel-wells and obscuring rocks, pot-holes and other such dangers in the murky depths. Along the side of the road, parades of people did their best to get to and from on their routes to work, climbing walls in order to avoid drenched feet. We watched some gentlemen giving woman piggy-back rides across flooded stretches of sidewalk; others rolled up pant legs and hiked up skirts before trudging through in unavoidable mess.

Thankfully thus far, Haiti hasn't had a repeat of the hurricane devastation that they suffered last year. But along the drive today, after a simple heavy thunderstorm, I got a hint of what the country must have suffered. Rain makes life hard here, even when its not hurricane-grade. Life goes on, but its harder. Just when I thought that wasn't possible.

Later that afternoon we heard a public education message on the radio that urged listeners not to throw their trash in the gutter because the people along the coast suffer the consequence after the rains. You can say that again.