Rain

This week I’ve gotten a little taste of what rainy season must be like. It’s been raining almost every night, usually very late or early in the morning when I’m at home sleeping. This makes me happy because it makes the weather slightly cooler and means I don’t have to water my plants (the only downside of having a private balcony, I have lots of plants and no hose so I have to go back and forth with a watering can. Who knew this could be such an annoying chore). Of course it only rains on the nights when I have already watered my plants, never when I've been too lazy.

The one time the rain really got in my way was on Wednesday night when I was at a dinner party with a bunch of Kiva fellows (fancy word for volunteer) that I met last weekend. I had heard of Kiva, an innovative micro-lending start-up, back when I worked in the Technology Labs, so I was super excited to meet real people who work there.

So I'm at my friend’s house when it starts raining at around 10 PM. I was ready to go home, but thought I would just wait it out for another 15 minutes, since the rain usually doesn’t seem to last much longer than that. Well, I ended up waiting 2 hours and it had only gotten worse… So I biked home through a torrential tropical storm and a flood in the streets that was almost up to my calves. This is nothing, as I’ve heard it will get up to your knees in rainy season (because the drains just can’t handle the pressure), but imagine biking through a shallow river, hoping you won’t have to hit the brakes the entire way home! Luckily my friend let me borrow a North Face rain jacket and I only live about 4 blocks away, so I got home safe and dry, at least from the knees up.

PS. I forgot to mention in my last post that Cambodia has no postal system or public transportation system. No local buses or trains, not even private mini-vans like they have in Africa. I expect most of my friends who are in love/hate with the CTA in Chicago to balk at this idea.