A Southern African storm is hard to describe if you have never been in one…if you have you will know what I am about to talk about.

Sometimes- like tonight- it starts with what you think could be the head lights of a car outside your window. The flash is so quick you are not sure if you really saw it or not. Often there is then a period of rest and THEN…

It begins…

The flash of lightening is like a blue streak that actually tends to land on the earth. It is so bright you think there are florescent lights outside the room…It is wide and blue and magnificent!

AND THEN…

The thunder (the rain is yet to come). I cannot tell you what it sounds like when the earth seems like it is going to crack open and swallow you up. You know those thunder sheets they use in movies which rumble and wobble back and forth to make a deep rumbling sound…well picture 3000 of those going for about oh say 5-10 seconds…I just cannot get the point across… you think the walls will be ripped away, you jump with a fright and you actually kinda brace yourself…if there are others in the room you look around to see that everyone survived the crash!

AND THEN…

The rain comes. It is not like Vancouver rain- it is tropical rain, like the sky has really opened up and is just pouring like a faucet, BUT you can hear each drop hit the ground or the tin roof or the palm leaves it is LOUD rain and it is fierce. I can actually not talk in a whisper to my roommate as it is so loud she would not hear me!

AND THEN…

The wind comes. This takes the rain like sheets across the buildings and over the roofs. You can see the gusts of wind carry the rain like fog drifts over a hillside. It pushes it up and down and all around!

BUT…

We knew it was coming… Last night at an evening service held in the dining hall we were visited by swarms of dive bombing flying ants! (not aunts!) these long juicy creatures actually just grow wings for 2-3 hours and then they mate and die…this signals the rains are coming. Last night we were encouraged to sit still and not let these benign, little, annoying, brats to bother us. I personally was not going to have that and took my bible cover and played baseball most of the service as I was protecting my face and my feet where there creepy bodies feel the creepiest when they land and flop around- their wings tickling your nose or the exposed skin on the top of your shoe.

…

So here I sit, the power flickering, the rain pounding, the wind gusting, raising my voice to a low yell to talk to my roommate, while flickers of lightening explode right outside my window! Vancouver here I come!!!!