caught in an African downpour!

Saturday is "family day", and we decided to go to the market to explore and take photos. As we headed out the door we noticed it looked like it might rain. But since it hasn't rained during the day since we arrived, despite looking very much like it would, we decided to risk it. Well, those threatening clouds did much more than just threaten!!


We got out of the taxi near the market and began to walk. An old man leaned over a wall and started reprimanding Stewart in French. He pointed at the clouds and told us to go home and take our baby inside! I was still feeling hopeful that it might not actually rain, so although we turned around, we decided to keep walking around that area until it really did start to rain. (I was still regretting hauling my clean, wet laundry in off the line the day that it drizzled for 4 minutes then cleared!)



Well, not even a block down the street, the wind picked up, and the dust blew! We realized very quickly that we needed to get a taxi, and fast!


We did catch a taxi quite quickly, and within a few minutes the rain came. Hard. Our taxi driver could hardly see out the windshield, with his wipers on full-force. He even turned on the heat to help defrost the windows! When we got out of the taxi and opened our gate, the water gushed forth! We ran through the yard to our house, and in the two minutes it took us, we were soaked.




But, since we were already soaked, we stood outside on our porch and the boys played in the warm rain.




The beauty of it was that the temperature dropped from in the 30's to 26 degrees by the time the storm was over. While Micah napped, Stew and I sat in our cool, dark, power-less living room, and had hot drinks. What a treat!