Within the first couple weeks of being here, I asked my aunt, “Do you ever get crazy thunder and lightning storms here?” “No,” she answered off-handedly. I think she just must not notice, because we’ve really had quite a bit of lightning - although it’s never been all that exciting. Last night when I walked to my aunt and uncle’s house to use the internet, there was some cool lightning flashing from behind the hills to the south. It was cool because it flashed every few seconds and lit up the clouds all the way in the northeast - even though there were no clouds and only bright stars directly over us.
About five minutes before I got up to leave my aunts’, it began to rain. We really haven’t had any rain to speak of in the last three weeks, and it being a short walk to my place, I figured I’d be find without an umbrella. About twenty seconds before I left, it began to pour. I mean like someone was dumping dump truck loads of water out of the sky. I accepted the offer of her umbrella. I rolled up my scrubs to my knees and headed out into the storm. Now there was some good lightning. I dropped off my stuff on the fourth floor, and took the umbrella with me up to the roof. I stood in the pouring rain, just watching the lightning and enjoying the sound of the rain on the metal roofs. I stayed out until the lower half of me was soaked, my umbrella was about to blow inside out, and I was cold.
I’d gotten into my house for maaaybe a minute and stood looking out my bedroom window, watching the water pour off the Cardonas’ roof in sheets. All of a sudden, everything was illuminated by the brightest flash of lightning, and at pretty much the exact same time, the most deafening, ear-splitting explosion of thunder nearly popped my heart out my mouth. For half a second, I thought, Did we just get bombed? I thought I was going to die. Actually, that’s a slight exaggeration, because I didn’t even come close to peeing my pants, but my heart rate was through the roof. And to think that I had JUST been a lightning rod on the roof!
Well, the storm eventually moved on, the electricity only went off a dozen times, and I ultimately fell asleep. Even though I hadn’t planned on it, I got up early to go running. My motivation: seeing the Himalayas through a clear, pollution-rid sky. All around, the ground had been flooded, construction sites’ sand swept down the road, the dirt road re-washed out, and the rice flattened. And in the end, the sky was still smoggy and the Himalayas were just as impressive as ever in the pollution.
In conclusion: 1. Loma Linda’s skies will probably be beautiful after living here. 2. My lightning rod self just escaped becoming a pile of charcoal on top of the ’95 building.
Some pictures of my run:
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| Taken from my front porch. I run up and over that notch in between the hills. |
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| Flattened rice |
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| That road is the last part of my run ... before I turn around and run back. |
Jenny! This is amazing! I wish sooo badly I cold be there with you! You were almost the Nepali version of Ben Franklin! Too bad everyone already knows about electricity! ha ha. You are the best friend!
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