Rain..

Man it’s raining outside. 

The skies just opened and are dumping down on us: it really is amazing actually.  It’s northern Australia during ‘the wet’.  Vas says it’s the tropics. 

And maybe he’s right. 

When Travis was just 16 he went to Costa Rica for a year with the Rotary.  It was around Christmas that I went for a visit: and it rained. 

Travis was staying in Heredia, near the capital city of San Jose, in the center of the country.  We got on a bus and travelled through real jungle: the first time I had seen anything of the sort: banana orchards, volcanoes.  It was just a few hours to the east coast of the country and the scenery made the trip even shorter.   

I had very little cash, foolishly believing there would be lots of opportunities to get to a machine, and gave up my last few dollars to a rather ‘Rastafarian’ looking fellah that appeared out of a ditch and almost accosted our taxi. 

“$50.00… get you boat.” 

I gave him the last of my money.. I was actually a little scared not to. Our Taxi driver indicated we would be fine, and left us on the bank of a canal, far from anywhere.  We sat on the grass and waited silently for more than an hour.

“I think maybe we were robbed Trav,” I finally admitted. 

“Ya think?!” he replied.. like only a teenage boy can. 

But it turned out ok...a boat eventually did turn up and took us on a journey through the jungle that included Toucans, crocks and monkeys of all sorts.  My $50 covered not only the boat ride up the canal,  but dinner, a night in a hostel/hotel, breakfast, a bit of a tour around the place and the return trip. 

I think it was the highlight of my life.. so far. 

It was amazing, exotic, breathtaking.  But it did rain, for about an hour as we made our way up the man-made waterway running parallel to the Atlantic Ocean. It began as a downpour.. then rained harder.. then .. well, it was as though someone got an enormous bucket and simply dumped it over our heads… and I couldn’t stop laughing.

Sitting in the front of the big open boat, I almost thought my son and I were going to drown.. and was not really too concerned about it.  It was phenomenal.

It was the tropics. 

A few years later I was in southern Peru.  I called home on my cell from work.  Peruvian teachers watched and then asked how things were in Canada and I mentioned that it was raining. 

One of them proudly announced that she had seen it rain before.

“These two have never seen rain.” She said, pointing accusingly to the two young Peruvian teachers keenly listening to the discussion. 

It made sense actually.  The hills surrounding the little coastal village were absolutely void of anything remotely green.  We had spent the weekend ‘sand-boarding’ on hand made floor-waxed boards. 

“I’ve seen rain,” one of them argued. 

But it seems he hadn’t.  Apparently it had been a bit foggy one night: almost. 

It’s amazing what we take for granted. 

When we lived in Salalah, people spoke with great reverence about “Kharif”, the season when the rains come.  A month and a half of fog.. more misty than rainy.  Treacherous and horrible actually!  

“Oh teacher.. Kharif.. beautiful!”

People flock from all over the Saudi Peninsula to experience the rainy season which stretched from about mid July to the end of August.  By the time teachers returned from summer holidays we were thankfully back in the sunshine.  I wasn’t sure what all the excitement was… until I saw Wadi Dharbat at the end of August.. God (Allah?) did smile on those hills! 

But it’s that idea of a wet season that I find really intriguing.  In my experience rain is a weather phenomenon, not a season. 

In Hartley Bay, not far from the Queen Charlotte Islands, Haida Gwaii,  the rainy ‘season’ lasts all year around.  The year I taught there had more than 280 days with precipitation: some of it fell as snow - ok, a lot of it fell as snow: it was definitely a very white Christmas that year.  The town is built on stilts: to keep it out of the muskeg.. and probably to stop it from floating away.

Back here in Northern Central Oz, the rain is much more welcome.  It is such dry country.  But before the season begins there is a ‘build up”: that period of time when the air is hot and humid, oppressive and unbearable.  That place in space when people go a little nuts and quit their jobs and head to Canada...even Cuba. That heavy, humid six or so weeks that build up and build up until the sky finally explodes and .. it rains. 

Like it’s doing now. 

Vas and I are thinking about going to Darwin for Christmas… and I’m glad it has finally started to cool off.  But, the steady stream of water dumping down on us has reminded me of Cyclone Tracey. 

Cyclone Tracey was the storm that ripped Darwin apart in 1974: flattened it really.  That was at about this time of year..  Christmas Time. Thank God we don’t live our life by ‘what if’.. although..I think that is the name of the web site Vas is surfing for a hotel.  And it really is raining out there!

At least I can be pretty certain it won't be a white Christmas!