Its Been A Long Hot Summer

Its Been A Long Hot Summer

...Without A Drop A Rain.

So after 339 days without a drop of rain here in Txangreja, 2 weeks ago we got 2 days in a row. I think the moisture and precipitation that we got here eventually turned into the weak hurricane that recently hit the Texas coast before heading inland and dumping a ton of rain and flooding the entire town of Ruidoso, New Mexico, where my dad hap-pens to live. Small world huh?

Anyway, it started out as a heavy mist type of rain. Never hard enough that you could hear rain drops, but hard enough that the surfaces of everything did get wet. That went on for about 3 hours and just after sunset, the first real drops started falling. Throughout the night brufa (drizzle) fell on the dirt and sand of Txangreja. The next day looked even more promising, with some pretty thick dark clouds hovering over the mountain-tops just up the ribeira from town. Sure enough, at about 2PM, the skies let loose and we got 32 minutes of what I would call torrential downpour. Like the day it rained in Txan di Tanki when I was in homestay on Praia, people were out in the streets singing and dancing and drinking the rainwater. People were putting buckets and barrels and pots and pans out on the roofs, trying to capture every last drop.

The next day everyone was out on the fields planting their corn and beans, and Lalino and I spent almost the entire day bent over an enchada (garden hoe) digging holes in the dirt while Bele (Benvinda’s mother) dropped in the seeds. It’s backbreaking work (the enchada is about 35 centimeters long so you’re literally standing spread-legged and doubled over to dig in the dirt. I learned that people prefer to plant only when the ground is quart ded moljad (wet down to a depth the equivalent of the width of four fin-gers), but we were planting in only 2 fingers. Apparently last year most people waited for the second two fingers worth of wet ground...and it never came.

Anyway, rainfall here in Txangreja is almost non-existant and due to our location in the geographical context of our valley, we receive much less here than most of the rest of the island. The mountains, which offer such a terrific scenic backdrop, act as a wind block, so the precipitation that falls in most of the valleys to the West of us has trouble getting over. The problem is further exacerbated by the prevailing ocean breeze, which blows inland from the water and serves to contain the few clouds that do make it over the mountain, up in the top of the ribeira near Garca...which is where we get our water from. Thus, just an hour away on the other side of our mountains in Coculi, they can get monsoon type events with driving rain and wind, while here in Txangreja it’ll be completely clear skies and 90 degrees. Typically the only time Txangreja gets any significant rainfall (the last of which I’m told was August of 2003...when it rained for 4 days straight) is when txuva ben d’mar (rain comes form the direction of the ocean). This is rare because although the configuration of the rochas y boca di moch (mountains and the mouth of the valley) create a “wnd-eddy” (just like an eddy in a river bend), the pre-vailing Sahel winds actually blow West to East...or out to sea. (Don’t ever say that Troy Kimmel, the TV weatherman that also taught my Weather and Climate class at UT, didn’t teach me anything!)

So anyway, we’re thankful for the rain we got, and everyone is hopeful for more. In the past weeks, almost the entire Northern half of the island has volta verde (turned green) faster than you can imagine...as if the land was just waiting with baited breath for the rains. Keep you fingers crossed for those of us in Txangreja! (I’ll try and get some good green pics up soon!)