In Guatemala the weather is great. We have sun during the day, warm to cool evenings, and beautiful sunsets. However, this is the dry season. When the wet season arrives this will all stay the same, however Mother Nature will add in a one hour thunderstorm and HEAVY downpour just about every afternoon. However, even during the dry season we have been privy to a about three of these storms all ready. That week we endured a horrific downpour during which the lightening was so close to our office, we could hear the streaking and the hiss of every bolt that struck nearby. You could even smell the ozone that was created ( in case you didn't know...lightening bolts create ozone, the same thing you smell when you make a copy on a copy machine). To most people, sitting inside a big, safe building, waiting out a storm wouldn't be a bad thing. Even I enjoy watching a good storm, under the cover of a porch or a house. However these storms we dread.
It all started when we were walking home one day when it started to rain...just a little. It seemed that with every step closer to home, the rain increased. We hurried and hurried until we finally reached the safety of our house...or so we thought. While Brittany went into the kitchen to put away some things from the market, I wandered upstairs to put on some dry clothes. However, there was no need to change, because it was raining inside our house. I yelled downstairs for Brittany so she could see our predicament. You see, upstairs we have a sort of central landing, to which all the rooms enter, as well as where the stairs to the roof continue. Above this landing we have two sort of glass pyramids that comprise the part of the roof to let sunlight it. These pyramids are comprised of a metal grid-like framework with the glass sealing inside the frames...or should I say the glass was supposed to be sealed.
We scrambled to to get as many buckets as we could to collect the water, however the water was coming from too many places to collect even half of what was coming inside. Gallons upon gallons continued to stream into the house while we grabbed brooms to sweep the water out the door on the second floor. So much water was coming in that it formed a small river from the second-floor landing, down the stairs and into the hall on the first floor. We really didn't know what to do. The owner's of the house weren't home, so I waded across what was previously our street but what was now a river with about a foot of water in some places to the ice cream shop, which our landlady owns, to obtain her phone number. We then called her with our cell phone we just happened to purchase that day, however she didn't answer. We would later discover she didn't have her phone with her. So then, we simply left a note at her mom's houses explaining what was happening. Since there wasn't much more we could do, we emptied the buckets, swept some more water out, and went into our bedroom which was high and dry and tried to forget about everything.
When the owners finally came home, we learned it was the first time it had rained since the roof was installed (I would want my money back). The nice thing is, the owners had their "muchacha" or cleaning woman make everything as good as new....this time. Now I just hope they get the roof fixed, otherwise we will have to continue to fear the rain and I will have to fix it.
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