Rainy season is almost here! 🌧️
After a particularly hot and dry stretch, we’re actually welcoming the cooler, fresh air it brings, even with its own set of challenges.
For those of us in town, rain means adapting our routines:
- Adjusting trips to the market once the downpour stops.
- The never-ending dance of trying to get clothes dry on the line.
- Frantically checking for new leaks and later sweeping water off the roof.
- Pulling furniture that usually lives on the covered patio to safety as it starts to flood.
It’s definitely inconvenient at times, but there’s also a lovely, refreshing side to it.
Life in the mountain communities we all along side is incredibly beautiful, but it also comes with some significant challenges, especially when the rainy season arrives.
Imagine your main living and dining area being outside on a patio – that’s how many homes here are designed for much of the year!
It’s a wonderful way to enjoy the climate, and cuts cost of building down so a family can have more space.
But when the intense mountain rains arrive (and trust me, they can be powerful!), these essential spaces become unusable.
For most families, their homes are a line of rooms off a single long patio. Strong rains drive families into their bedrooms.
It’s a humble reminder of the everyday realities faced here and the resilience of the families who navigate these challenges and dangers.
Dangers we learned this firsthand a few months ago – those dirt mountain roads transform entirely once the rains begin.
A 4-wheel drive vehicle isn’t always enough anymore. You need sturdier trucks just to tackle the slick, muddy passes. What was tough after just one night of rain will become very dangerous after days of it.
Landslides are a real risk, sometimes taking away the road from above or causing it to drop out from below. Muddy spots can turn into deep ruts with every passing vehicle, the tires digging deeper and deeper.
Of corse, for families that challenge comes only after getting to the main mountain pass!
Before that, simply getting to the road can be an adventure. What might be a 30-minute walk on a dry day becomes a trek through straight mud because the footpath is now the low spot for water. You either navigate the tall grass and brush on the side or surrender to the mud and hope you keep both shoes!
Not to mention the sharp climbs! What our team has found to be challenging with steep inclines of loose dirt sliding every few steps will now be slick with mud.
I’m grateful for the care our families take to come all the way to town to check on their babies. And we will soon learn in more detail what goes into that process as we continue to visit our final-month mamas in the coming rainy months!
My mind is just blown by the incredibly brave and strong folks who do this daily.
I particularly think of the women who navigate these paths carrying a baby on their back, steadying a toddler with one hand, and balancing firewood on their heads.
Mountain communities are truly built different! Their resilience and strength are constantly humbling and inspiring.
For me, I am content to sit with a cup of tea in the absolute serenity of rainfall breathing deep of that fresh rain smell.
God gives us so many wonderful moments of beauty.
Am I getting old that I even mumble under my breath that “we needed this”…
