Rain

I am humbled by nature and feel vulnerable by its splendor.  We are having at the moment our first heavy rain that lasted more than a few minutes in length.  I was excited to see the clouds getting darker and growing closer together. I welcomed the rain to fill our newly built reservoir. I just didn’t expect what was to follow.

When the rain first began, I stayed out in the open and danced in it. I celebrated and loved feeling the freshwater on my body.  I filled up all our jugs with water very quickly from our water collection tarp. I crawled into our tent and snuggled up to Eddie. It was romantic and felt like a Sunday afternoon. But the rain kept up and we had nowhere else to go. After what seemed like an eternity, we wondered if it would ever stop.

We were getting hungry and didn’t plan for cooking during the rain. We knew our natural cooking area with chimney wouldn’t light during this heavy rain, but perhaps the stove with a lighter would. We had planned to create a sheltered area beside our tent, but hadn’t created it yet. Whenever we wanted shade, we sat under a palm tree, but that is not protection from the rain.

We decided to build a sheltered area now. The wind was picking up and starting to howl. We had the waterproof tarp to use from our water collection, but the sticks used to prop it up were very low to the ground. We wanted to be protected from the wind, but the wind seemed to change direction all the time.  We were in the middle of a tropical storm.

We decided to go back into the tent. It appeared to be dry and sturdy in the ground, but there was no way to escape the blowing winds. We feel so vulnerable. How different our entire campsite seemed from just this morning in the sunshine. We were not in control, that much was clear.

It is impossible to sleep during the storm. Your body goes into to survival mode and the adrenaline is pumping. I am still awake.