Wet, wet, wet

Nicaragua is most certainly the place where the word ‘extremes’ was invented. Either it is so dry that your feet hurt when you walk on the dry grass in our garden – or it is so wet that the same lawn could be used for mud wrestling. As always in this country, it is either-or: Drought or inundation.
And so it started two nights ago. The winter. After six months of drought, the sky suddenly looked different. On the way back from office, a colleague even told me: “It looks like it is going to rain soon.” I couldn’t tell the difference, but took her word for it and started looking for flashlights, batteries, candles and matches when I got home. Rather safe than sorry.
Turned out to be a good idea. The thunder and lightning was far away in the beginning, but soon moved closer. As we were eating outside on the terrace, we had the entire show right before our eyes. Lightning was immediately followed by thunder – and before the sound had died away, a new lightning had occurred. Lightning followed lightning, and was then followed by more lightning. The street was lit up as during day, while rain poured down in cascades. We were beyond cats and dogs – rain in Nicaragua is more like elephants and giraffes.
The lights went off a couple of times, but always came back. Once again, thanks to our neighbour Hospital Metropolitano, which I believe is the reason why we have so few power cuts. Everybody else I’ve heard of lost electricity during the couple of hours that the thunderstorm lasted – and quite a few didn’t get it back until the following morning.
And then it all stopped. Our garden suddenly had a built-in pool, and all the dirt, leaves and the bit of trash that somebody had left on the street was gone. Managua looks so clean when the rain has passed, like if some giant hand has washed the entire city. That is… unless you live in one of the barrios downtown or some other place where all the water (and the trash) eventually ends up.
That is also the part of town where rain and winter isn’t just funny and fascinating, but also mortal. Because the winter did claim the first victim, a 12 year old girl who slipped in the rain, grabbed onto a wire hanging next to her, which unfortunately turned out to be a fallen, electrical cable, fainted and was carried away by the rain that had turned the street into a river. That is the part of the winter that hurts and why you actually have to take care and prepare your kids for whatever situation in this country.

Published by Christian Korsgaard