Rain, rain and more rain...

Rain, rain and more rain, that just about sums up the weekend here in Freetown. Rainy season started over a month ago, but surprisingly last week there was very little rain and August is supposed to be the wettest month. Well, this weekend made up for last week’s dry spell. It started raining on Saturday morning and rained on and off all day and I think it literally rained for most of Sunday. And when it rains it really pours. Roofs leak, people get soaked, gutters overflow, dirt roads become mudslides, etc. Even our road is a terrible mess now. Since they are re-digging the gutters they piled up the dirt on the side of the road. Well, the heaps of dirt are now slippery mounds and the road itself is one big mudslide with large collections of water here and there. It’s definitely not a pleasant walk down our road anymore; for now.

On Saturday we had to go to the hospital for the afternoon to meet a team from Wales coming to help with both the lab development program as well as the Emergency Triage and Treatment workshop. I guess since it was raining all afternoon anyway, it wasn’t a bad place to be. At least we were inside, dry and doing something useful. Sunday I did go to Regent but as soon as I was home it really started pouring and so we stayed in for the rest of the day. There was no way I was going to go out in the tropical rainstorm. Again, I ended up working all afternoon and evening. There is just too much work to do. So, I started answering work emails one after the other and putting them in my outbox, waiting to be sent the next morning from the hospital.

Unfortunately this morning on the radio we heard that a house on Mountain Cut road collapsed, killing 13 people of which 9 were children. It is a tragic event due to the heavy rainfall and poor construction of the house. Apparently there is at least one person who was critically injured that was taken to Connaught Hospital. It’s another sad story. And another story like many others. Every year it seems the rains lead to deaths; a house collapsing, children being dragged away in a flood or a mudslide due to erosion as an effect of deforestation. There’s always something. But, fortunately the rain is beneficial as well; for crops to grow, for the water level Guma in the dam to fill up, etc. And of course, for the expats, the rainy season is the cooler time of year. Yes, last night, I even put on a vest.