Monsoon Season

Well, I believe monsoon season has begun to arrive. It has rained more in the last few days since we arrived back from Hadrimout than it has in the last month—nearly every day. On Tuesday, it rained steadily for about an hour, sometimes pretty hard. The main street that runs from near the front of the school to Bab al-Shaoub turned into a waterway, though it didn’t look very deep. (Picture left.)

After the rain stopped, I went down to the wadi road that is literally a paved over waterway and it becomes a serious waterway, collecting all the runoff when it rains. The water was half way up the tires of the few vehicles brave enough to dare driving in it. The water was absolutely filthy—black filthy—with plastic bottles and shoes and all sorts of stuff being swept along.

The kids like to play in the water. There were several wading about in water half way up their shins. I saw a little girl, probably about seven years old, wading in the water. She went well down the road away from the area where you can get in and out of the wadi, probably chasing something floating by. She couldn’t get it and ended up getting stuck. The current was too strong for her to fight it to get back to the exit. A car drove by creating a terrible wake that splashed her. She also slipped, ending up soaked. As I saw her standing in the water crying, I began to wonder if I should jump to rescue her myself. Luckly, two young men in their late teens saw her as well. The slide down the steep wall of the bank to her rescue her; picking her up and carrying her up the road and out of the water.

Kids playing in the water.

This is the little girl who got stuck. I took this picture before I realized she was in trouble.

Cars braving the water.

Kid playing in the water posed for me to take a picture.