Lightning! Thunder! RAIN!!!

Since arriving here in mid-June it’s been day after day of cloudless blue sky and a blazing sun. There have been exceptions, including dust storms of varying severity, but the weather has been unrelentingly predictable. For the past few days the wind has been blowing from the east and the humidity has been elevated. The salts in the dry soil have attracted this moisture, making the soil wet and sticky where salt concentrations are high, which is to say most places around here.

Then, yesterday afternoon clouds appeared. These weren’t the wispy clouds that were occasionally apparent around sunrise but then quickly burned off in the heat of the day. These were bona fide clouds, big round packets of roiling moisture. The sky grew dark around mid-afternoon. Then, what was that? No, it wasn’t an outgoing artillery round, it was thunder! A bright flash of lightning, then another. The rain was coming! Sure enough, big fat drops began to fall, slowly at first. I held my breath. Soon the sky opened up and a nice steady rain fell for almost 45 minutes. Beautiful sweet rain.

We were thinking of the Bedouins camped in their tents in the desert on the outskirts of the base, wondering how they were celebrating the arrival of the rain, wondering too if their rough tents were leaking. We know that farmers everywhere that rain was falling were celebrating its arrival. The drought here has been multi-year and severe, perhaps felt most acutely by shepherds and herders, whose flocks and herds have been reduced to less than half of pre-drought levels. With the rain, I’m expecting to see wheat and barley sprouting in the fields shortly.

The rain has turned the base into a muddy mess. Drifts of dust collected on the roadsides and elsewhere have turned to slush. There are puddles! The mud is slippery and sticks to your shoes. The floor of the DFAC is strewn with tiny clods escaped from the lugs of boot soles and the Bengali workers are busy chasing them around with brooms, dustpans, and mops.

Why all the excitement and fuss over this rain? After all, it was just a shower. The point is that it has been a long time since rain has fallen here and ANY rain is a big deal. Also, working in agriculture, we know how important water is to the success of farming here (indeed, anywhere). The rain is a cause for celebration and for hoping that there’s more on the way.