March 18, 2013 - Rainy day in Kampala

I think that the rainy season in Uganda officially started today.

No, this is not a fact. To be honest, I have no idea when is the first "official day" of the rainy season (or if there even is one...). The previous days I have been here, it has either not rained at all, or had brief bursts if heavy downpour during the nights (which really help to keep the heat at bay). Today was a totally different ball game...

I stayed home from the hospital today because my stomach was quite queasy (though getting a bit better now, which is good). I was taking a nap around noon when, all of a sudden, it sounded as though a bomb had gone off on the roof of the guest house. I had figured that it was going to rain today, as the sky was dark and it hadn't rained in the past couple if days; however, I did not quite expect this intensity.

First of all, the sound was deafening. I had previously had my fan on high, and the rain completely drowned it out. If someone else had been around, I would not have been surprised if we had to shout to communicate. When the thunder eventually came, it literally shook the house and rattled my bones. I braced myself for the lightening, but it never came (I'm not really sure why). When I looked out the windows of my room, there were sheets of rain pouring down outside, making it difficult to see very far in the distance.

At one point, it even started hailing (which added to the powerful pounding on the metal roof...).

When all was said and done, the storm continued for at least 25 minutes with a steady onslaught of rain. Not to mention that the temperature probably plummeted at least 15 degrees during this time.

When the rain finally died down, I assumed that was the end of it. Not so much. During the previous storms, the clouds let loose, had a 15ish minute party, and then moved on to torment someone else, leaving the sun shining in a beautiful blue sky. Not the case today. The rain has since continued, with only intermittent breaks in the action. The sky remains grey and dreary. Hopefully the clouds will get this out of their system and move on, but I'm not feeling confident about it. I may be in for a very wet next 7 weeks...