Rain and Storms
It’s raining cows and horses. Which is fine for me, because I’m in the ADRA office. It’s warm, solid and waterproof.
The monsoonal rain that woke me at 4am, combined with lightning and howling wind, hasn’t let up for over an hour. As I look out my window into the dark, I can see the effects of the wind on the palm trees, and I really feel for those still living in tarp-clad huts, especially those so close to the coast.
How warm would they be? How dry would they be? How safe would they be? And how safe would they feel? It was only 14 months ago that a storm totally changed everything for so many. What feelings, what emotions would this storm bring?
Standing at my bedroom window, watching sheets of rain sweep like a wave down the tarp verandah below, I imagine sleepless households awake in anxious concern. The farther is juggling buckets under the numerous leaks in the palm-frond roof. That is if he even has enough buckets. The mother is caught between consoling her wide-eyed 4 year old daughter, feeding her screaming infant, who instinctively feels his mother’s fear, and lifting everything from the floor, where within minutes a river runs. Their house before Nargis was raised to avoid flooding from the monsoonal rain. But they simply have not had the resources to rebuild their coastal home. The tarp walls flap wildly as the wind howls, and a sheet of rain leaves everyone and everything inside drenched when the wind whips it open.
This is just one of so many storms that passes through this area, and the reality for so many living in the delta area of Burma. For me, I have the assurance knowing that should I be in the path of a cyclone, I would be warned. But fear of the unknown, of a repeat of Nargis, must play havoc on the minds of villagers.
This past week has been a week of craziness for me work-wise, working even after midnight. But when I contemplate the situation for so many, and think about the potential of changing things, even for a few, I realize that it is a small sacrifice. My motto is ADRA’s:
Changing the World, One Life at a Time.
