Where is your umbrella?

Hi again!

I am always amazed at the amount of water that comes out of the sky here in Manila...especially as it accumulates on the ground and in the streets :) Yesterday we had two really heavy showers within about four hours of each other that rendered some pretty exciting moments.

The first storm started about the time I went up to the school to take Andy to the doctor for a strange rash on his foot/leg. I was a little dismayed that I had gone out in the middle of the sunny day without my umbrella, yet again. As Andy and I slowly climbed the hill from the seminary up to the medical clinic, I was amazed at the amount of water coming down the hill. Along both sides of the road, there is a "ditch" that is about 1 meter by 1 meter, and it had raging white water rushing down the hill. We came to a "Y" in the road and the water was accumulating about 6 inches deep. Many, many people drive a car like ours, so as I watched other cars like mine going through the water, I also proceeded. No problem...whew!

We got to the doctors office, after carefully making our way up the hill and trying diligently not splash all the people on their motorcycles or "tricycles" (motorcycles with a side car...carries anywhere between one to about 8 people, depending on how you stack them). Upon arrival at the doctor's office we were told that we had to return after 5:00, but before 6:00. We ran over to the grocery store in hopes that the rain would stop while we were inside, and it did. When we went back down the hill, there was no white water raging down the sides, and the "Y" had no standing water.

We returned to the doctor, and after a quick visit, headed into the pharmacy next door. While we were inside the pharmacy, the sky opened up again. Once again, I had not brought my umbrella with me...it was in the car. We made our purchase of some topical medicine and some antibiotics and headed back down the hill.

We got to the same "Y" and the traffic was stopped...there were cars that were not going through. Slowly, the traffic director was guiding certain cars through...my car was allowed through. The traffic worked it's way slowly down the hill and as I passed the seminary, I looked at the "water fall" that was rushing out the gate. We worked our way down the main road to our house and traffic slowed way down. Again, we hit an area where the water was accumulating and traffic was going one car at a time through. Occasionally, there was a Jeepney that would just gun it and go like a motorboat right down the street. At one of the three really bad spots on this main street, Andy noticed the Barber shop had about 6 inches of water standing inside their shop. The peculiar thing was that there were still hair-cuts being given. The barbers were just standing in the water cutting hair just as though nothing were out of the ordinary.

Finally, we turned into our subdivision and worked our way around the car that had either stalled, or decided it was going to wait out the rain. Down the road just a bit, we could see there was some cross flow of water going across our main street. As the cars in front of us cleared and proceeded through, I could see that there was a large gate that had been opened and water was rushing out, just like the dam had been opened. Down the way just a little further, there is a sidewalk with about 5 feet walls on both sides...that gate was also opened and it looked like someone had opened up a fire-hydrant and it was shooting white water into the street.

The worst "puddle" we went through was one of the intersections in our subdivision and I found that my knuckles were getting about as white as some of the water I had seen rushing about in our excursion. I am certain that if we had been even 10 more minutes we would have not gotten home until late into the night. As we approached our street, we were greeted with the "creek." It must have wanted to come up for a visit. Andy climbed on top of the car and opened the gate from a top of the car...then I pulled forward as he closed the gate from the top of the car also. The creek hadn't come all the way into our driveway, for which I was grateful. We were home by 7:30, safe and praising God for yet another safe journey.

One of my friends was coming from the opposite direction at about 7:30. She and her husband ended up completely stopped on the main road until 1:30 am ... waiting for the rain to run off so that the cars could get through. Again I am so grateful that that is not our story.

This morning, as I was driving up to the seminary, I was amazed at the way the streets were already cleaned up. Unfortunately, there is a lot of rubbish that flows in the waters when they rise. However, the streets were already swept clean, and many individuals were sweeping up whatever gifts the flowing rivers brought to their door. Just like the barbers, it was just no big deal... It is really amazing to me the way we adapt :) Thanks God for making us like that!