"Falling on my head like a tragedy..."

Well, the rains have finally hit. It has been pretty dry here, but the last week or so has been quite rainy. I must explain here that it is not rainy like it is back home. The biggest difference being that there is not that fresh clean smell after a shower. Here, it POURS rain. As in water-comes-into-the-house-and-destroys-furniture rain. As in streets-become-rivers-rain. As in smells-like-ass rain. What happens is that all the stuff that had been sitting around as aesthetic polution, trash, feces, rotting fruit, etc. begins to float and due to some magical scientific chemical process begins to smell... so as I said, that last description is not an exageration.

It has given me a very clear picture of the devestation that floods cause, not by the initial water damage but by the influx of diseases that follow. People are getting sick. There is talk of Dengue. (Of course, there is always talk of Dengue.) It's subtle, it's not an epidemic, it's just what happens when it rains. We had just a couple of strong days of rain, I can't imagine, although now I have a better idea, what it would be like if it were really flooding.

Anyhoo, I am headed to the AVC (All-Volunteer Conference) next week. We are all getting together for halloween this year. Should be interesting. Sure to be cold. Well, cold for Costa Rica. We will all bundle up. This year should be particularly freezing as now that I have become accostomed to living on the sun, if the temp drops below 80 I start to shiver.