Its raining! Its pouring!

I have always had an unnatural fascination with the weather. I can watch the weather channel for hours at a time. Our home page has weather displayed for Greenwood, Auburn, Pine Mountain, GA, and TayTay, Philippines. I also check the forecast on the internet or tv at least a couple of times a day. Therefore I have been watching the Philippines' weather since last fall. I knew that July was the rainy season. According to the weatherchannel.com it rains an average of over 15 " during the month of July alone. So it hasn't been any surprise that it has rained everyday since our arrival. The days are usually beautiful with bright blue skies until the rains come. They blow in, it pours for 30 minutes to an hour and they leave again. This happens once or twice a day usually in the afternoon. It isn't just a sprinkle; it is heavy sheets of water. Kind of like the old Morton salt ad-"when it rains it pours". Yesterday, the rain began while I was returning home from taking the kids to school. All of the sudden traffic just stopped as Jeepneys and trikes stop to pull down or put up plastic over their windows. They don't pull over or anything, they just stop where they are. Last night the rains came in again. In the U.S. we might not have even noticed, but here we sleep with the windows open. This rain came with gusty winds and Allan and I awoke to rain blowing on us in the bed. We shut the windows above the bed and returned to sleep, only to have to get up a little while later and lock the screen door in our room. It was banging in the wind. We finally had to shut the other windows because the fan was catching the rain and blowing it on us. The kids of course slept through all this since their windows face a different direction. They enjoyed the benefits of the cool breeze through their rooms. It is now 3 pm and the waves of rain keep coming. It stops for 30 minutes or so and then pours again. We did see the sun for about 15 minutes just before lunch, but our Filipino friend Dehl told us it wouldn't shine for long. She was of course right. After lunch, before Allan returned to the clinic, we did enjoy a 20 minute snooze on the lanai (screen porch). It was so cool and we enjoyed the sound of rain on the lanai's metal roof.

Earlier this morning, I did a little shopping after dropping the kids off at school. It was then I discovered what the cement culverts along the edge of the road are for. These are for the run off of the tons of rain water which has fallen in the last 12 hours. There are still big puddles and flooding on the street, but I guess it helps divert some. I would have thought the heavy rains would have kept the people off the roads seeking shelter else where, but kids were out in droves splashing and playing in the puddles. I guess kids are the same the world over. Emily and Will also wanted to engage in a little puddle jumping after school today.