And the rain came...

This afternoon, leaving my final class of the day at 5pm, I heard something. Vaguely familiar, but strange to the ears, like a song you haven't heard in years.

It was thunder. Rolling thunder, announcing imminent rain.

Of course, Oaxaca is no stranger to the rain. When I arrived in July, it was raining every single day. Sometimes for the entire day. I brought my raincoat with me at all times, and everywhere you looked you saw people armed with umbrellas.

But that was the rainy season. Here in Miahuatlán, we haven't had ANY precipitation for months. Not a single drop since late October. The formerly muddy roads have totally dried up, the flowers and greenery have almost disappeared, and the remaining plants are visibly thirsty. The bus ride to and from school is ridiculously dusty, and we shut the windows (despite heat and a crowded bus) to minimize the clouds of dust that can enter our lungs on the journey...

So, needless to say, it caused quite a buzz among my co-workers and I to hear the thunder, and see lightning and rain in the distant mountains, making its way towards us. We took a walk around campus, to admire the rare sight and talk about all the benefits some rain would do. But even though it's starting to feel like a desert here, and there are days when we fantasize about some rain, we still didn't want it to rain TOO much, we weren't prepared with our rain gear (which has been stored away for months, I don't even know where mine is!)...

In the end, we got the best of both worlds. It rained a bit, while we were all safely in our offices and not en route to class, and then it stopped. We enjoyed the beauty of the rain, and the knowledge of how much our town needed the water, while the smell of fresh rain spread throughout our offices.

I'm getting ready to leave for the day, and I'm looking forward to breathing on the bus, without the dust particles!