The Rain, The Rain

A shot of our new church in Lu'ua - about a ten minute walk from my house.  One of the nicest churches I've seen in Samoa.  I was early - there were about 100 people at the service.

I went to church on Sunday.  I walked there and back in sunshine and sweat.  The phrase “sweating like a whore in church" came to mind but seems inappropriate, me living a sort of nun-like existence.  Anyway, not a breeze stirring.  Within a couple of hours, though, the rains came.  And continued.  Monday it rained.  Monday afternoon heavy winds joined the downpours.

Last night was the worst weather I’ve seen since I arrived in Samoa.  I have 10 windows in my house.  9 in the main room and a small one in the bathroom.  Three of the windows have no glass.  The remaining have jalousie windows.  I can easily explain why they are no longer used in Florida, where they used to be very popular.  They leak.  Air and water.  You can “close” them, but they never close all the way so when wind is blowing the rain sideways, it comes in the house.

The rain not only came in through the windows, it came in by the bucketful from the leaky roof.  I put a soup pot under the largest leak and had to empty it every half hour or so.  I decided to just enjoy the cooler air and let the water come in, since there wasn’t much I could do about it anyway.  I curled up on my bed with my laptop and the complete DVD pack of a season of Grey’s Anatomy.  I was going to McImagine I was with McDreamy in Seattle.

My curtains were blowing sideways into the room, which was no big deal until it was time for bed.  The head of my bed lies under two windows.  Every time the curtains blew in, they rubbed against me.  I’m not an idiot, so I got up and tied them into a knot to keep them from blowing on me.  That worked swell until the knots blew out because of the force of the wind.  Then they’d blow against me again. 

Since I discovered signs the other day that a new rat has taken up residence and has been hanging out near my bed, every time a curtain would brush up against me, I awoke thinking “Rat!  Giant ass rat rubbing up against my face!”  Then I’d realize it was just the curtain and would try to relax back into sleep. 

The biggest sleep disturber, though, was the sound of banging coming from my bathroom.  I went in and stood there, trying to figure out where it was coming from.  Then I saw the roof move.  Now, I’m no engineer, but I think it’s probably not a good thing to have your tin roof flapping like it’s waving goodbye.

I realized the problem was that they had not put nails to hold the roof in place close enough to the walls, so whenever a gust of wind got under it, it flapped.  And in flapping, was beginning to pull out the existing nails.

I thought about that for a minute and then crawled back into bed.  Then I lay there for awhile, brushing the curtains off of me, considering what I’d do if the roof blew off.  I didn’t come up with any great ideas so I just rolled off and went back to sleep.

Now it’s Tuesday night and it’s still raining, but there’s minimal wind and the rain is just a shower not a freaking waterfall.   My brother came over and climbed onto the roof to hammer in some more nails.  I’m hoping we’re good to go.  I still am not sure what I’d do if the roof blows off.  I suspect there would be tears involved and a lot of swearing.