Pula

I've just been going through posts from last year. First I did it to remind myself that Lesotho really will be green soon. I didn't imagine it, right? Then I look and the pictures and it's an even more vivid color than I remember. The rainy season began on Monday, October 6th this year and we've had several showers and one great thunderstorm since then. (We did get a storm mid-August, but it was a tease.) The dull brown hasn't been replaced by the green I see from my photos last year but it will be soon. A lush, dense holiday green. Last year our first day of rain was on September 26th and since that day this year I've been looking at the sky every morning, anticipating the sound of rain on my roof. I've read books where people wait out the dry season and dance around when the first drops fall; I've heard of prayers for the Gods to bring water to the earth; now I get it. It's so dry and brown and dusty and even if you have water available to give to your seeds it's a meager amount and never enough. And then I started dreaming about rain - no lie, I dreamt that I woke up to the sound - and every greeting you make includes the phrase, "where is the rain?" But that dream ended up being exactly what happened and it was confusing enough at 530 am to make me go out to my porch and hold out my hand to make sure it was real this time. Never in my life have I paid so much attention to the weather, cared so much about precipitation.

But the rain is here. Everyone is smiling and now we answer greetings with "I'm happy to see the rain again."