'TIS THE SEASON

Here on the West Coast of Sri Lanka we are heading into our rainy season, which runs from May to August. It has marked its arrival with heavy rain, growling skies and intimidating tropical thunderstorms. Sunday night was particularly bad. The perpetual rumblings of thunder had me dreaming that I was in a war zone. The rain was torrential and by yesterday (Monday) morning, with no sign of letting up, many roads were underwater.

Still, life goes on so we set out to take the kids to school as usual. At least with all the rain, there was a lot less traffic about. Only those who had to be out, were out. Yet there were still many to be seen braving it on foot or riding their bikes, holding an umbrella in one hand. I'm not sure how many would manage to see the morning out without being drenched by spray created from vehicles passing through the puddles that now consumed most of the road. We drove past one girls' school where the students were all removing their shoes and socks to wade through knee-high water to reach the school grounds. At one place, we navigated a piece of flooded road while two men, perhaps father and son, watched on from the threshold of their simple home, stranded by a moat of water around their house.

By careful navigation we managed to avoid the flooded streets and make it to the school. However, once there, the thoughts that had been gathering in my mind were confirmed. The school was closed for the day so we turned for home. However, Prince is on holidays so this was our first day with Cedric driving. Cedric was not confident with the roads I had navigated him down to get to the school and wanted to go home via the more direct route. This road tends to be chaotic in the mornings at the best of times but I was happy to let him make the choice.

Sure enough, a large portion of the road was flooded and vehicles from both directions were doing their best to navigate the waters. We were about to turn around and go back (which would be no mean feat as there were now vehicles hedged in behind us) when a man wading out of the waters got our attention. He was carrying an umbrella and wearing nothing but a short sarong and a motorbike helmet (well, that would get your attention!). My immediate thought was, "It must be bad. He seems to have lost his motorbike and taken off all his wet clothes." Yet, somehow I don't think that is what happened (though I can not tell you why he was wandering around the flooded streets wearing a motorbike helmet). Anyway, he seemed to have taken it upon himself to direct the traffic and he convinced Cedric that he would make it through the waters. And he was right. With the sound of water sloshing outside the doors, we took on the giant puddle and won, driving off with Cedric saying, "He was a good man. He was a very good man."

We made it home to surprise Daddy with two energetic little boys with a day off school. It also happened to be the day we had chosen to resume our English/computing classes after 6 weeks in Australia. We were barely expecting to get a class, considering the weather but we were pleasantly surprised. One of the students was coming from a town which had not had any rain yet so she was unaware that there might have been a problem but two who had to catch the bus from South of Colombo had a bus ride that extended to 6 hours through the flooded streets to come to class. The rain eased off throughout the day but returned by evening. Reports were coming in that if the rain didn't stop, Colombo would be losing power as the power stations were almost submerged.

With hopes of better weather, we sent the kids off to school today. However, the rain returned and at lunchtime we received a call asking us to collect the children as the school had to close once again. So Darren went out to face the rain and the roads. It was to be almost three hours before he was to return. Almost every road between home and the school was flooded and choked with vehicles trying to navigate the waters. To add to the situation, adjacent to the school is a factory which was sending all its workers home due to the conditions. In the meantime, the sky was throwing down everything that it had and we now had a river rushing down our driveway, through our yard and back out to our neighbour's property. My phone was able to receive calls but I could not ring out so I was worrying about what had happened to my family. Thankfully, a call from Darren early on had alerted me that this would not be an easy trip and I knew a friend of mine was also waiting on her children to get home from school. Still, it was with great relief that I finally saw the van coming down the drive, right at the point where I couldn't keep anxiety at bay much longer and I was pondering my next move.

At the moment, the rain has ceased and there are no outbursts from the sky; no thunder - either in deafening bursts or subtle rumblings - and no sky-splitting flashes of lightning. There are just the frogs, singing in froggy chorus; a deep bass complimented by a croaky alto with a somewhat syncopated rhythm. There are undoubtedly people trying to find a good place to sleep in flooded homes and hoping that the rain will hold out long enough for mattresses and other things to dry. We'll see how the weather goes tomorrow and perhaps make a call to the school office before deciding whether we'll try sending the kids to school tomorrow. But for now, I'll enjoy the peace, be thankful that my family is safe at home with the kids snug in dry beds and be grateful that all I need to deal with the leaks in my roof is a strategically placed bucket or two.