When will the Rain End?

Since we arrived in Vietnam, it’s been raining. It’ll rain in the morning, afternoon or evening. Rarely does it rain all day. But, it’s best when it rains in the afternoon because it cools everything down. Unfortunately, that part of the rainy season is over and now it rains at night and gets pretty cool, sometimes cold. It definitely doesn’t help being cold natured. And it definitely doesn’t help when you’re not prepared for the rain. There have been a few times when we’ve had no umbrella or poncho. Actually, we don’t even own an umbrella here. It seems pointless sometimes because the rain comes at every angle. A poncho is a little more sensible, although it only covers the top part of your body. The bottom half might get soaked when you’re riding on a motorbike. This is where rain boots might come in handy, although no one really has these. Everyone just wears the rubber shoes or flip-flops when they drive through knee-high puddles. Driving in the rain is another story. I haven’t seen a terrible accident yet in the rain. But, I have seen someone sort of hydroplane as he went from side to side and finally fell off of his bike. He was all over the place and lost his bag and one shoe. I watched all of this while I was riding behind a xe om driver on my way to the next campus. The xe om driver was really helpful and helped the poor man find his things again.

However, some good things do come from the rain. Children love playing in buckets of rain pouring from the sky onto a tin roof and finally pouring onto them. You don’t need to water plants all of the time. There’s enough rain for the plants and enough sun to keep them alive.

Alas, the rainy season is almost over. It will be nice to not have to drive in the rain and carry a poncho everywhere I go. It will be nice to not have to rush home or to work to beat the thunderstorms. It will be nice to not be soaked when arriving at work. But, we’ve heard that the dry hot season is really hot. We’ve only experienced it for a week when we took vacation here, but we are ready as ever for it.