Thread: Guatemalan Rain

I’ve been living in Guatemala for about a year and a half now. It is nice to be well into my second year here. I feel that things are coming back around and I get a second chance to do them again, and do them better.
Take the rain. It rains almost every day during rainy season in Guatemala from late May until about early October. I decided to sit outside this year and welcome in the first rains of the year. I am sitting in an amphitheatre in front of a ruin, a church, in the outskirts of town. I’m completely alone. It’s hard to find a place that’s quiet with little noise from the traffic and people. I hear some buses, but they are far away. I make two new friends, a couple of pups maybe just a couple of months old. I am not the only one who gets excited by the rain. They jump and bounce and bite eat others’ ears with each approaching clap of thunder. (Actually, I bought their friendship with a couple of bits from my parmesan bread. Here comes the mother. I didn’t ask if it was alright if I feed her kids. I hope she’s not angry. I bet I can buy her affection too.)
I hear some thunder. Yes, here we go. I was unprepared last rainy season and made no attempt to rectify my absent forethought. I spent the entire rainy season just running from building to building, hoping that my swiftness would carry me past any complete drenchings. But even just a split second of an entire bathtub of water being dumped on your head will leave you wishing you had packed clean britches. I felt like a toddler trying to wean myself off of diapers. Yes, instead of biting the bullet and buying some rain gear, I would pack in my bag for work each day with a clean pair of clothes in case some horrible accident would befall me. (By the way, I teach English to children living in poverty in Guatemala City. We teach like responsibility, self-sustainability, not-wetting-yourself-abilty, things like that. Sometimes you just have to take your own medicine.)
This year, ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to report that I will be sporting a hot, jet-black slicker-pancho, complete with hoody. It doesn’t cover my lower shins or shoes, which is a legitimate concern, because like I said, we’re talking bathtub-sized rain droplets here in the tropics. But it’ll do. (By the way, the two puppies are now sleeping on top of each other right next to me. It makes me really want a dog. I’ve never felt this way about dogs before, or any animal on that topic. It could just be the rain talking. It tends to bring out the giddy.)
When the rains come, it seems to wash all the dirt and fleas away. It seems to. It doesn’t really. I can actually see the fleas crawling in and out of the pups’ ears. The rains won’t help you there friend. Yet there is a warm anticipation that comes with the building of the storm clouds. I can’t help but get excited and feel happier when it happens. Don’t know why. The kids at the project where I teach definitely feel it. The rain brings about this jolly frolic and makes you want to bounce around as if on a pogo-ball. (Remember the pogo-ball, looked like Saturn, that you jumped on as a kid? Ok, one of the dogs just rolled over in his sleep and fell off of a step he was sleeping on. Funny. Cute. Not caused by the rain. He’s a puppy- probably caused by that.)
So what´s the point of all my rambling? I don´t know if I have one other than this: rain makes me happy. Lots of people equate rain to the blues, depression, heavier shoes (ok, that one is legit, but it still shouldn´t make you upset.) So the next time you feel the rain coming and you get that little tickly in the bottom of your pants, just wrestle around with your pal, bit his ear, and go out and dance in the rain. It won´t take care of your fleas, but you´ll feel better.

I enjoy your writing; it makes me feel close to you, and also like the I have had this experience.

I enjoyed reading this a lot. I can relate to what you're saying, because I love the rain too. I've never understood why our culture associates it with depression, because to me, it is peaceful. I liked the way you described where you live: you make it almost sound like a hidden paradise, but you're not too sentimental either. Your writing is very unassuming too, which I like; reading this was sort of like opening up someone's diary. You did a good job of tying everything together in a satisfying way with the last sentence too.

And I hate to sound like your 8th grade English teacher, but I did notice a few grammatical errors:

-"bite eat others’ ears"... "bite each others' ears"
-"We teach like responsibility, self-sustainability"... "we teach responsibility, self-sustainability"
-"When the rains come, it seems to wash"... "when the rain comes, it seems to wash"
-"just wrestle around with your pal, bit his ear"... "just wrestle around with your pal, bite his ear"

Well there you have it. Those are all pretty easy to fix. Thanks for writing!

The narrative is laid back, making this comfortable to read. I like. Makes me want to go to Guatemala and run around in the rain.