Waiting out the rain

Rainy season was supposed to have ended in April, but it's July and the water gods seem to still not have gotten that memo. While most days are now full of sunshine, Cajabamba still gets hit once or twice a week with the quick and fierce afternoon downpours that characterize the rainy months. After a deceptively bright and sunny morning, clouds will begin to loom over the eastern mountains, and soon enough the rain is upon us. My favorite place to be when one of these torrents starts is at my desk, where, from a cozy and non-wet vantage point, I can look out my window and marvel at the weather's sheer force.

View from a rainy afternoon

This picture does not do the rains any sort of justice - you can barely even see any drops. The reality is unlike anything I've ever experienced: quarter-sized drops of water (or, not uncommonly, hail) pounding on the tile and tin roof at freight-train volume, so dense that you can hardly see across the patio. The speed with which the downpour suddenly begins and ends makes the force even more remarkable - within five minutes a normal street scene becomes a literal river of water flowing downhill, while more floods down off the roofs.

Where I'm from, the rain is a constant drizzly companion that might warrant a rain jacket, but rarely an umbrella, and would never interrupt any true Seattleite's afternoon plans. The monsoon-like nature of Cajabamba's rains make that impossible here: if it's raining, the cajabambinos settle in wherever they are and wait it out. They know the storm won't last more than an hour, and with the flexibility of the hora peruana, why get wet? I've had meetings in the campo postponed or cancelled when a big rain starts, and I've had students roll into class forty-five minutes late because they were waiting for the rain to stop. Imagine a Seattle high schooler arriving tardy with the excuse of "it was raining." S/he'd be laughed all the way into detention! This capacity of weather to interrupt serious plans initially required a significant shift in expectations for me. But, like most other cultural adjustments, you get used to it, and now I just enjoy watching the rain fall from the comfort of my room.