Let’s talk about the weather…

Compared to my home country Holland, everything here in the tropics is incredibly intense: the colours (vibrant green mountains against a clear blue sky and bougainvillea so pink, it hurts your eyes), the smells (seducing fragrance of tropical flowers and rotting garbage), passions (love, envy, anger and frustration), the music (whatever the style, it’s always LOUD!) and yes, the weather too. Hardly ever do we have a day that is “just nice”. It’s either extremely hot; so humid that it feels like you breathe pure water; or so dry that your skin screams for cream or oil. We even have amazingly cold days that, with a feeble 12°C, might not quite live up to the winters up north, but still, without any heating system, the chill creeps into your bones and make your fingers turn blue when working on the computer. The last few months have been far too dry and the green mountains faded from vivid green to a washed-out yellow. Cars passing by blow up thick clouds of dust that cover the whole world with a greyish film of dirt. The Copán River, such a freighting mass of water in the rainy season, is nothing more than a pathetic little stream. Gardens look miserable, harvests are ruined and potable water is so scarce that in most neighbourhoods there’s only water every other day.
But all that changed overnight last Sunday. Although a month too early for the rainy season, the first real storm broke over the valley of Copán around 8pm and made me realize yet again to be careful with what you wish for… For half an hour, the lightning was so intense that the sky was almost constantly lit up, treating us humble people to an impressive show of waving palm trees and rain falling down in thick curtains. Of course there was a black-out too, which made the whole thing all the more dramatic. And then, just as suddenly, the storm was over. The power came back on which was helpful while I was sweeping about two inches of water out of my house. But it wasn’t until the next day when I left for my morning hike that I realized how much damage the storm had caused: trees were uprooted all along the road, signs blown over and lamina roofs lifted from houses and stables. All throughout that day I heard stories from people from town and the surrounding villages about damage done. Some of our students in La Pintada were so frightened, they hid under the mattress. In El Tigre, where we run our Health and Sport Project, about 300 pine trees fell down and the roofs of several houses were completely blown away (see photo). Some of our students not only lost their roof, but also part of their livestock. One boy told how only six of the two dozen of chickens his family owns reappeared after the storm.
Since Sunday we have had two more rainstorms, but luckily none as hard-hitting. Hopefully it stays that way when the rainy season starts for real. Rain is still much needed. But so is a roof over your head. Especially when it rains.
Carin Steen