Time of the Season

The rainy season is upon us and it’s not a rainy as I thought it would be.  But Sister Anne said Kuluva has not been getting the usual amount – a lot of the storms have been passing by and hitting Arua.  We get a rain storm about every other day, usually between the hours of 11:00pm and 1:00am.  The heavy downpours accompanied by massive lighting and thunder wake me up every time.

 

The morning after the thunderstorm, the temperature drops to the low 60’s.  That doesn’t sound very cold, but my house has screens for windows (the glass is there but never really closes).  With a strong wind blowing the cold, damp air through my house, I am freezing in the morning!  I layer up with a tank top, t-shirt, and sweatshirt, and long pants underneath a skirt – and sometimes a blanket on top of that!  But by noon the clouds begin to clear and the sun comes out.  This combined with all the moisture equals 100% humidity.  But at least I’m warm again.  :)

Besides the temperature change, one other major difference in my life during this season is the change of pests in my house.  Those huge African spiders that I killed on a daily basis are gone.  I’m guessing they come inside the house to stay cool during the dry season.  I haven’t seen a single one since the rain started. (The Daddy Long Legs are still hanging out.  I sweep through the house each week to get rid of them.)  Now I’m dealing with termites, millipedes, ants, and . . . mosquitoes.  Yes, the mosquitoes have arrived with a vengeance.  Now on top of my layer of sunscreen, I have to put a layer of bug repellant.  Geez.  The termites and ants are annoying and only an occasional problem – it’s the millipedes that creep me out.  They seem to crawl under my back door into my kitchen (there’s a huge gap between the door and floor; I bet small animals could get in if they tried).  And the millipedes also fall from my ceiling.  I have a straw-mat type of ceiling where the spiders, lizards, millipedes, and God knows what else nest.

 

   

(A lizard can easily climb between the ceiling and wall.)

 

Another effect of the rain is tall grass and overgrown plants around the house.  It’s nice to have everything looking so green, but it’s also the perfect place for snakes to hide.  Yep, it’s snake season.  Just yesterday I found a green mamba in my kitchen.  (Sorry, I didn’t have time to grab my camera.)  It came in through the gap at my back door – big surprise.  It’s funny – this kind of stuff doesn’t even faze me anymore.  “Shit.  There’s a venomous snake in my kitchen.  Get out!!  Shoo!!  Go away!!”  And it turned around and went right back outside.  Luckily, green mambas are very shy and generally non-aggressive.  I got the feeling that this guy just made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in my kitchen.  As soon as he saw me, he turned around and left.

Ok, not to leave you totally creeped out, there are also good times – with the monkeys of course.  Here is a picture of a little monkey takin’ a snooze on my front porch.  Aaaawwww.  ;)