I’m having trouble getting used to the rain here.  It’s not that it’s particularly bothersome, it’s just that it’s different.

At home in Oklahoma, we rarely just have rain.  We most often have storms that come with rain, and wind, and lightning, and thunder.    We like those quiet rainy days that come every now and then, but it’s not the norm.  We’re trained to look at the sky, chart the path of fast moving fronts, and calculate the severity of what’s coming up the turnpike from Oklahoma City.  It’s just part of how we plan our day during the spring and early summer.

Here in Madang, we’ve have had quite a bit of rain the last 2 weeks, at least by my reckoning.  No storms and only a little bit of lightning and thunder.  With little notice, the faucet is turned on, it rains several inches, and then it just stops.  No fast moving clouds, no enormous lightning or thunder shows (it does lightning and thunder some, but not like on the great plains), just a lot of water falling straight down.

And the water just disappears.

The ground is very porous, mostly sand and coral, so the water doesn’t really puddle up anywhere.  If we had the same amount of rain in Tulsa, we’d all be using boats by now.

It never occurred to me that I would miss Oklahoma storms and their awesome exhibits of natural energy.

I’m sure that PNG has its own such displays of nature, but I’m not sure I’m going to like them as much.

All this doesn’t mean I’m not grateful for the rain.  Fresh water anywhere is vital and that goes for St. Fidelis.  Rain water is the primary source of water at the school, collected in large cisterns from the roofs of most of the buildings.   They tell me that during dry seasons a well must sometimes be used but it’s often brackish and salty tasting.

I have admit that I was a bit leery of drinking the water from the cisterns when I first arrived.  I’ve had too many bad experiences in Central America with the local water to not at least give it a thought and a prayer before imbibing.

Happily and thankfully, I’ve had no problems, it tastes pretty good, and is abundant as long as it continues to rain.