Rain, rain, it's time for play!

I made a vow to myself that I would blog once a week. Last week I failed. We were busy with a retreat that we had with some of our Banyo colleagues and we didn't have internet for several days. Nonetheless, I failed. So even though Josh blogged yesterday,here is a bonus blog to make up for last week... and there are lots of Charlie pictures!

When we first arrived in Cameroon, it was the end of rainy season. This is by far my least favorite time of the year. Dust, dust everywhere! As the rainy season approaches, the humidity builds and you are sure that it is going to rain, but it doesn't. It just gets hot and sticky. And your feet look like this after to walk to the market.

In Mbingo, the Harmattan is so thick at the end of dry season that you cannot even see the mountains right outside your door. What's a harmattan you ask? It is a dry wind that blows over the Sahara Desert and picks up sand and then covers Western Africa is a fog like sandy haze.

Then it happens- it rains and rains! Glorious rain! Not all day and not everyday, but almost everyday really heavy rains fall. You can hear it in the distance falling loudly on the tin roofs as it approaches (usually just enough warning to run outside and get your almost dry clothes off of the line). Maybe it is because I lived in a desert for so long, but I LOVE the rain. It smells amazing. The sound is soothing. The temperature instantly cools. The mountains turn green again. People slow down and rest. Planting starts and people are hopeful at the prospect of their crops.

But what is one to do if you are an active preschooler when it rains?

Well,

You ride horses even though the sky is dark and it is thundering because it is just "a little rain."

Or you read outside on the porch under the overhang while mom studies.

Or play in a blow up pool with friends because wet is wet!

Or you dye Easter eggs.

Or when mom is really going crazy, she just might send you outside in your raincoat and boots!