Letter 5 from Guyana - rainy season

5th December

I thought I would write this brief note to you to announce a realisation: I now know why rainy season is called ‘rainy season’. The answer being: ‘Because it rains a hell of a lot.’
I guess in some ways it a fairly useful season as it is a good method of letting one see just how good your roof is. For us, when it rains outside, it also rains inside. It is not the slow thudding drip of a leak: it is literally a shower. I had a proper shower yesterday morning, turned it off & went to my room to get dressed & it was still showering water on me …AMAZING! I slept in Craig’s bed last night (&no he wasn’t in it …he’s in town) & awoke at 2am feeling very much as though I were sitting in a rain cloud. I was wet with a sheen of mist, I then realised that it was the result of sideways rain coming in through the mosquito net & kind of sieving through at high speed. I crept into bed with Ollie in our windowless room.
Rain also makes us cold! A nice change. Last night I went to bed & savannah was present (not in my bed obviously) & this afternoon it is pretty much entirely under water…..Wow!
Washing clothes is made even more tedious as now we have to hang clothes up to dry INSIDE …this process takes days & adds even more obstacles to our house. Now to get from the kitchen to the bed I have to: walk over our nice new red carpet, around hammock no. 1, step over the damp patch/puddle, under washing line no.1 & Ollie’s damp hoody while simultaneously stepping over hammock no. 2. You then have to duck under washing line no. 2 & Ollie’s damp shorts & you’re in to our room. THEN … you have to duck under 2 large electrical wires hanging down from our walls & across the door way – managing to avoid my damp towel, then lift up the mosquito net & climb in to bed.
Going to the loo in the middle of the night is not the easiest adventure!
School is also affected by the rain. The Guyanese do not go outside when it rains. This morning at 9.30am only about 40 dedicated students had arrived. The Headmaster still hasn’t made it here yet & it’s 2.30pm. For some students it is understandable – some have to walk 5 miles to school. Others have a 1 ½ hour paddle by dug-out. There’s a school rule that if by 12.15pm it hasn’t stopped raining then school’s cancelled for the whole day. Love it. & we thought we were pathetic about snow!
Currently, while it continues to rain, I am sitting waiting for my form 3 students to finish their biology exam. I have little faith that many will pass, because it involves them actually having to use their brains …something many find hard!
We’ve had the IT exam already & the results were …..poor. Class 1A & 1B actually had averages over the passmark (50%) of 51% & 52%. 1D & 1C had class averages of 37% and 35% while 2A’s was a little more respectable at 47%. So it’s all good
I would like you to know , also, that I BAKE AWESOME BREAD!

Love to all,
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Whoppee!
Love, love, love
Emily xxxxxx