November 6-12 Flood week

On Monday we had school as normal. It rained a little but we didn't think much of it because it is the rainy season. On Tuesday it was raining so much they canceled schools and by Wednesday the rain had not ceased. At one point we went out to go down the road for a minute and the streets were up to our knees in water. By midday the water in places was chest deep. So many houses were flooding and the water just kept coming. What struck me though was the attitude of the people. When the rains didn't stop they just went out and played in the streets. They floated boats around and swam in the streets. Even when everything they own is being drenched they found a way to find joy in the situation. My neighbor was telling me that there really is no point in worrying when you can't do anything about it. All we can do is make the most of what we do have. I just kept thinking about what would happen when a neighborhood floods in the States. How many people would you see out smiling and laughing with their families? Probably not many, but here as we walked down the streets we see smile after smile. We could learn a lot from these people. Thursday and Friday we were still in a state of emergency so we didn't have school. We spent the days out playing with the kids in the streets. At this point the water had mostly gone down so it was safe for us to be out in the streets. We found a little bakery in our neighborhood and shared some treats with our neighborhood kids. They love just hanging out with us and walking around the neighborhoods. As we walk more and more kids join us. It is so fun! Friday night we decided to go to the movie theatre. We called a gua gua driver to come get us and we all piled into his little van. As we drove we could hear a terrible rubbing and rattling noise. It was a little freaky. At not point we stopped to look at it and the back tire was rubbing as we drove. The driver rearranged us so the smallest girls were in back and then we kept going. The tire started smoking and the floor was getting really hot, but somehow we made it. We wandered around the mall for a while before our movie. The movie I wanted to see ended up not being in English so we went to see another one. It was a nice break from our normal Friday night movie at our kitchen table. On Saturday we spent a good part of the day watching movies in the kitchen. I get really bored just watching movies so I ended up writing in cursive for a while and the making bracelets and doing other random things.