Calm Before the Storm

Wednesday February 21, 8pm

I’ve never seen a “calm before the storm” like there is here. It’s rainy season (thank you La Niña) and there’s dark clouds overhead and lightening in the distance, closing in. The temperature’s dropped from this afternoon’s sweltering humidity and the radio report from Horqueta 40k to our east (where the clouds are coming from) is that it’s pouring there, so there’s no doubt as to what’s coming. Motos rush by to get home before the rain. Kids bolt down the street to the dispensa (corner store) to buy food for dinner or caña (grain alcohol) for after dinner. The lights in the streets go out and a little girl across the way starts to cry – I’m prepared with my flashlight out on my front porch and shine it over to help her find her way home. House lights are still on for some reason, but we all know it’s just a matter of time before those go too. I’ll go inside in a minute and lock up the house completely. No one in Tacuati will be going to sleep any time soon, and I’ve already turned off my alarm for 6am tomorrow – the roads’ll be way too muddy to bike or run (nearly too muddy to walk), so I’ll get to sleep in til the roosters wake me up and then do yoga. As it gets darker (it’s 830 now) the people riding or walking by get more desperate. Will they make it home in time? But for me, out on my front porch with a glass of red wine, watching the lightening, I don’t want to move an inch. The calm before the storm indeed. The lights go out for a minute and I hear kids yell “weeew!” in various houses nearby. I think we’re all a little disappointed when the lights come back on a minute later. Reluctantly I head inside to lock up the house, it starts to sprinkle a bit and I brush my teeth using bottled water and spit out the window. I pack up my journal and prepare myself for a long night of loud rain.

PS – Except it never rained!! I would have bet my life that it was going to, so would every person in this town, but it sprinkled for a few minutes around 9pm and again around 1am and that was it. I woke up this morning with a wine headache around 830am, mad because I could have gone running after all. It was a beautiful sunny morning, but it’s 1pm now and the clouds are rolling in once again. Ah, La Niña.