I held my breath and I stood my ground

There was two of everything but one of me
And when the rains came tumbling down
I held my breath and I stood my ground
And I watched that ship go sailing out to sea

The rains came. It's the short rainy season. There is the short rainy season (for about a month between October and December) and the long rainy season (March to May). To me this means there is a short and long dry season too. Four seasons. Just like home. The short rains were actually a little slow arriving. We had planned on going on safari to Mikumi National Park this weekend but had heard that it being late in the dry season meant all the animals were all congregated in one spot - where the water was - instead of being spread throughout the whole park.

The temperature is getting hotter too. It's not that the sun is directly overhead (because we're at 7 degrees South, it pretty much is about 3 feet above your head all the time) but rather the currents change in the ocean and instead of a nice cool current coming up from Antarctica, the current curls around India and Oman and brings hot water. And monsoon rains. So that's why it rained like a bible story on Sunday. We didn't go to the beach, we went to the movies instead. In our absence, the palm tree outside the house was struck by lightning.

It just missed P, the nightwatchman. Some lights burnt out. Babu's volume went on his tv (bad for him but a huge blessing for us). Our cable box went (we can get pirated dvd's at the intersection - not that we would - I'm saying we could). Babu thought that a bomb had gone off. Now the palm tree is in 4' sections on the ground, hacked by machete. Everyone is fine. We have some sort of fruit from the tree on our patio that we think we are supposed to know how to extract yummy goodness from but we don't. Maybe they are coconuts that got all signs of familiarity lightning-struck off? [edit: I've just been informed that it's only me that doesn't know that they are coconuts. My mistake.]