Rain Days and Flooding

I wake up Tuesday morning with plans to meet several AEAs and talk to them one-on-one about their background as extension agents, their farmer groups, and their expectations of the AAB Curriculum. I also have expectations. I wanted to meet with them to get to know them and get the program rolling. I hope that they will each pick at least two farmer groups to work through the curriculum with and to come up with a plan of action. Anyway – I wake up to pouring rain (the sound of rain is extremely loud on a tin roof!) and realize that my 9 a.m meeting isn’t going to happen. If it’s raining you don’t really go outside.

The view from my room:

Nobody goes to work because the roads are extremely hard to navigate in the rain. I smile and go back to bed. Rain days are awesome in my opinion and sleeping in is something I rarely get to do at home. The rain day reminds me of growing up in California, where we had two rain days from School and went puddle jumping on both occasions. Rain days feel like snow days in Canada, except I’m in a room in Africa with nothing that I have to do (we’re so busy doing what in Canada?). All this to say that I was very content with the rain day. My family knocks on the door with a hot cup of Richchoco (a Cadbury product of chocolate deliciousness). I spend the morning reading, lazing, relaxing and generally enjoying this excuse to sit and not sweat. At about noon I get a call from my 9 a.m extension agent, “Uhh, with the rain, I don’t think I’m going to make it to our meeting.” Haha.
Nadia, who does the same work as I do in a District just north of mine, and I call each other several times throughout the day, “What are you doing? Sitting? Yeah, you? Yeah. Okay, I’ll call you later”.
When the rain lets up, my host family and I meet in the centre of the compound and talk and laugh, but when the rain gets going again, we all head into our rooms. My sense of glee is quickly brought down when I get a call from my director asking if I could go with him on Wednesday to visit with farmers who live and work in areas that have been affected by flooding from all of the rain today.