The rain

Yesterday morning was hot and humid, and I went up to the roof balcony with a camcorder in order to record all the activities that can be seen from that height - women washing clothes, old men doing their exercises on their balconies, workers hoisting water up to construction platforms in metal buckets. The city itself is relatively low-built - buildings tend to rise no higher than six or seven floors, with a few fifteen story hotels dotting the skyline. Here all the sounds can be heard in distinction: noises of motors and horns, distinct conversations, children laughing and playing at C____ elementary school. The air is hot with odors and fragrances, especially at noon. These are the fragrances from the flowering trees, from the pork cooked with fish sauce, from the very air itself, with its unidentifiable zest of earth, and doubtlessly pollution. And though I was sweating profusely, there was a breeze.

The electricity has gone out on two occasions yesterday - once in late morning for a few hours, and once again in the evening until about 2 AM. T____'s family tells me that this is because of the draught, which makes the hydroelectric plants unable to function properly, causing occasional power outages throughout the region. Strangely enough, I was trying to import video each time the power went out. It seems that matters of electricity and technology are not on my side in general.

But who could have possibly described prepared me for the rain? I awoke from an afternoon siesta to the sound of the rain splashing into the house through the open windows. I quickly changed into my swimming speedo and ran to the top floor, which had a patio with plants and a table set, and found Mr. H____ pushing the rising water away from the door of the of the patio before it could begin flowing down the stairs and into the house. He called from underneath the overhang to me and began motioning to me, holding out a disconnected broom handle, which I took from him. As he motioned, it took me some time to determine what exactly I was supposed to do, but I finally realized that I was supposed to unclog the gutters and push the waters into them. By this time, T____ was standing there, and it must have been surprising to see me standing on the edge of the patio wearing nothing but a speedo, holding a broken broom, bending and pushing water among all the tall plants on the balcony. It was certainly not the most dignifying undertaking, but it had to be done, and it was fun.

All of my electrical equipment had been placed temporarily on the floor between two open windows, which had only become slightly moist when I awoke. The camera did not get moist at all - it was far from the rain.

The rain came down so heavily that within two hours it had entirely inundated the main road in front of the house, and motorbikes and cars splashed around the river of brown water in the middle of the road. The small creek that flows behind the house - a creek into which all sorts of human waste are disposed - had flowed onto the opposing sidewalk and into the first floors of some of the homes down the lane, and the bridge that normally rose over the waters was submerged. Those who resided in homes on the opposite side stood in knee-high rubber boots holding brooms, pushing the occasional pieces of floating trash away from their doors as the rain beat down fiercely from all directions.