Dreaming Of Sun And Blue Skies

Many weeks ago, I made an post entry here about the El Nino phenomenon and how that has been causing Lianga to swelter in the midst of hot, humid days and nights.

Well, I now take back what I said then, most of it anyway, because Lianga, because of the onset of a long delayed rainy season and what meteorologists mysteriously call the ITCZ or the Intertropical Convergence Zone (something I know nothing about), is now awash with rain and shivering from days of cold weather.

Instead of worrying about dust and high temperatures on the roads, we now worry about mud holes, landslides and flash floods; of blocked, impassable routes and road sections. Trips are postponed, business activity slackens and as people are forced to stay indoors most of the time, the incidence of colds, respiratory infections and fevers of various kinds increases dramatically.

The only positive outcome of this wet and cold weather, if you can really consider it in that light, is a sudden upsurge in the local birthrate which, if you consider the not so encouraging local economic indicators, may not be that positive a development after all.

As we huddle indoors and stuff ourselves into sweaters and jackets, we dream of hot weather, clear and sunny skies, and the freedom to go outdoors and go about the daily business of life. And we bitch and complain about the wet weather, the same weather conditions we had hoped and prayed for during the hot spell we had only two months or so ago. Laughable if not ironic, isn't it?

But I do miss being able to go outside in the sunshine, feel the sea breeze on the face and taste the salty tang of it on my tongue. I also miss seeing clear blue skies, the perfect blueness marred only by a few slender wisps of white and translucent clouds in the far horizon. And the smell of sun warmed grass and earth on warm afternoons and clear, cloudless nights when one can go out and walk about town in the soft light of the almost full moon.

Ahhh, how fickle man can be.