Downpour

Today, my friends (Deana, Jeanne, Emily, and Tina) got used to our morning routine with the kids. Deana and her mom, Jeanne, walked the kids to school with me. After we got back, we ate breakfast and then headed out to pick up rice at another missionary's house. We picked up an entire pickup truck load of boxes of rice. Then, we immediate had to go pick up the kids at school. Since we had 11 people in one pick up truck, four of us ended up sitting on top of the boxes of rice in the bed of the truck. By the time we got home, we were all sunburned and covered in grit and dirt from the roads.

After we got home, we all wiped ourselves clean, ate lunch, and then started unpacking all of the containers of supplies and toys that they brought. That took the better part of the day, largely because we had 4+ kids in the room helping/playing with all the toys we were unpacking. After we finished unpacking, we spent some time playing jump rope outside with the kids. It was their first experience with jump ropes so it was pretty hilarious.

After the kids went down for bed, we were ready to relax and enjoy our dinner. However, as things usually go here, that was not going to happen. Instead, a huge thunderstorm came out of nowhere. It was a torrential downpour. Deana came into the kitchen and said, “Uhh, Kate. There is water coming in.” I assumed she meant on our porch which often gets wet in storms. When I looked, sure enough there was a small river running in our back door. In a matter of seconds it started running in pretty heavily. We quickly grabbed a dozen towels and some mops and started making a barrier to keep the water from running any farther. Then, we took brooms and started trying to push the water out the porch door and away from the house. There were two people mopping inside and soaking up water with towels, and four of us using brooms to sweep water out. We put out four 5 gallon buckets to catch the water that was coming off the roof, but there was so much water coming down that the buckets filled in about a minute. I went up onto the roof to see if our drains were clogged. I was soaked to the bone and the water on our roof was about a foot deep (our roof isn't very slanted and there is an edge around it). The drains on the roof were not clogged. The water was just coming down so fast and so hard that our pipe was not large enough to drain the water off the roof. So, we just kept sweeping water and mopping as fast as we could. After about 20 minutes, the rain slowed enough for our pipes to start draining properly.

As crazy as it all was, I think we all had a lot of fun in the midst of everything. I'm so glad that everyone was here to help, otherwise, it would have just been Dorothy and I. The best part about the whole thing is that a lot of the water went straight into our cistern! Thank you God for FREE water! It has been so great having my friends here. By the end of the day today, the kids were all coming out of their shells and having lots of fun. Today was just day one for Deana and everyone, and we have already had so many laughs. I just cannot wait to see what else is in store for the rest of their trip!