Rain

Until a few nights ago the rainy season seemed to have skipped Bambey. Alysas would call with news of flash floods in Thies and there wouldn't be a cloud in the sky for me. One day my host dad and I were 7km away from Bambey and were told it had poured rain the night before - not a drop for us.

Two nights ago I went to bed with my windows and balcony door open like normal. Around midnight the power cut but my fan stopping barely woke me up. At 2am the wind jarred me awake (it sounds odd to be woken by the wind, I realize). I jumped out of bed to close my balcony door. The wind was so strong that I was struggling against it for about 10 minutes before finally jamming my door shut. Wind had already started blowing rain into my room and my sheets were wet. I quickly closed my windows and moved my computer to a safe spot. By the time I had finished closing everything, I noticed my floor was wet. I'd seen water drip in through my windows before so I wasn't surprised until I realized there was actual standing water. I quickly got a bucket and started mopping up the water with an old towel. It was fast to use my hands so I started trying to cup the water into the bucket (making cups with my hands and then emptying it into the bucket). I found the source (my balcony) and started working there. When the bucket was completely full I emptied it and kept going. An hour and a half later there wasn't much water on the floor and I had emptied two full buckets (for an idea, I use 1 bucket of water when I have to bucket bath). I had a dry sheet and found the corner of my mattress that was still dry and collapsed around 4am.

I think I've solved the problem of my balcony door and I moved everything that was on the floor into plastic buckets so if my room floods again I won't have to worry about things getting ruined.

The past two days have just been some more setting up for the camp, reminding people it's happening and things like that. Oh and avoiding the donkey gang.

KO