In Florida, in the summer, it usually rains for about an
hour in the late afternoon. You can
almost set your watch to the rain storms that blow through.
In Samoa, the rains usually come in the early morning
hours. An hour or two before
sunrise. I’d prefer that the cooling
rains come when I’m trying to get to sleep in the humid night rather than just
before my alarm is set to go off.
Today we had rain. It
began about 4:00 a.m. It continued, just
a drizzly sort of rain with a slight breeze, until almost 6:15 a.m. I
turned off my fan and snuggled under my thin sheet, letting the curtains slap
me in the face. That may not sound
restful to you, but compared to lying in a pool of sweaty sheets, it’s heaven.
The lightening sky made me realize my alarm would be going
off soon so I got up. I looked out the
window to check the weather and saw the pigs in front of my fale. Using their snouts to dig up large chunks of
lawn. It is the dogs’ job to keep the
pigs from digging up the yard but they were sleeping. I hate having to walk over the chewed up lawn
so out I went, mu’umu’u flapping in the breeze.
For those not familiar with Samoan, think muumuu. A large, roomy caftanesque kind of
nighty.
I was the only one awake so didn’t want to raise a ruckus to
chase off the pigs. Instead I used my
flapping mu’umu’u and my fierce face. It
worked. The pigs headed to the swamp and
I strolled back into my house.
I left for work at the school at the usual time, a little
before 7:00 a.m. I noticed that there
was no one else there. While I’m typically the first teacher, usually there are
at least a few children. Nope, I was
alone. I opened the office, turned on
the copier and computer and prepared for the day’s lessons. A few kids had joined me, but no teachers.
At 7:50 a.m., when school usually starts, there were two
other teachers. One in his classroom and
one selling food from her canteen. The
kids were in the hall.
Over the next hour, as the other teachers arrived, they
explained that it was cool and rainy.
Too hard to get out of bed. Damn
my palagi obsession with being punctual.
