Storm!

This blog is a bit of a postscript to the last one. I haven’t lived here long enough to know the impact of climate change, but I do think  that it isn’t supposed to be raining during this time the way it did yesterday. It is not the long dry season when there is no rain at all; it’s the short season between the rains and it’s normal to have some rain. But like this?

I could have named this story ‘the launch is postponed’ because that’s what happened. We had headed off to the national stadium near our house for the opening of a week long dance festival called FESPAD. A friend gave us official invitations which meant that we got to sit in the part of the stadium that was covered, useful if it rained but more critical to my thinking, protection from the sun. A big event of dancers and fireworks was planned and a guest of honour rumored to be the president or the prime minister or the first lady.

Rain seemed far away as we queued sweating in the hot hot mid afternoon sun to go through security (involving airport scanners and the request to put even my glasses through the scanner, sniffing dogs and a gentle pat down).  A group of Burundian drummers, heavy drums on their heads, and a group of women in severe dark suits, mid calf skirts and blazer tops cheered only by bright yellow blouses under their jackets waited in line along side me.

The drummers from Burundi arriving

Sitting on plastic stadium seats we waited and waited. We waited while the stage was being assembled, we waited through a warm up band, we waited while the ladies in the dark suits swayed to their leader, a suited man preaching the gospel. The ladies seemed like nuns, dressed modestly for Christ and never letting go into the music, their choreographed movements, little hops and side to sides and waving of the arms, seem constrained. 

Singing for God

We waited and watched the sky and wondered if and when the event would officially begin. There was a patch of darkness in the sky but localized and not ominous. My thoughts went from it’s not going to rain to maybe it will rain a bit but then there it is. Instant, a whirling wind and blasting rain, everyone running up to the top of the bleachers but even here the horizontal sheets of rain penetrated. On the stadium field, people running to take a row of Rwandan drums to shelter, the cloth cover over the stage is ripped off and people desperately attempting to protect the sound equipment. The power goes down. 

The stage, a couple of minutes after the prior photo

An emergency door is opened and an unflappable Rwandan says, you can leave this way, the launch is postponed. That delightful Rwandan way of understatement.  We trip down dark stairs, people fumbling for the lights on their cell phones, finally emerging into the lobby where we wait until the torrential rain finally abates and we can walk home in the post rain freshness. 

The view, while waiting to leave