rain.rain.rain.

We're in our fifth day of straight rain from tropical storm Noel. Its wet here, but thankfully not flooding like most of the south is. Some reports have said that 60 or more people have been reported dead from the flooding. The frustrated people of the south are blaming the government for not informing anyone that the storm was coming. The government would rather see people stay in the campos and small towns than to flood to the cities for refuge. The same thing happened with the same government when hurricane George came sweeping through. I guess you take your weather stations and informational news programs for granted in the US until things like this come your way.

I never saw a country where the schools shut down because it is raining out. They are closed until the government says its ok to open back up again. Blady has been home the past 3 school days for that very reason. And for most schools its not for the floods, its just because it is raining. At first I kind of laugh at that and chock it up as just another crazy thing Dominicans do. But then as I was thinking more about it today...it started to make some more sense to me.

First of all, most kids and families don't have covered transport to school, and the way they get to school is by walking or riding motorcycles. So what about the umbrella? Most don't own one.

If you do get wet, you stay wet. When it rains here, everything turns wet and there's no hope of drying it out. The dry sheets on the bed all of a sudden feel damp. For that matter, everything that was once dry feels that way. Paper become limp. Walls become cold and damp, and if you run out of "dry" clothes....you have a problem. Pnemonia sets in among the young and old alike. And soon, the rainy days become hazardous indeed.

Remember the poor during these days. They are the ones that suffer the most. To start with they have little protection from their houses, few clothes to change into, and few resources to turn to.

I took a picture out our bedroom window into the neighbor's yard which looks like it has about a foot of standing water. The next plague to come in a few days will be the mosquitos!