Rain today, rain yesterday, rain tomorrow?

The rainy season has started. It was supposed to start on Monday the 7th of March, but it really started on Thursday, the 17th. Just kidding... I think. In any case, it has rained every day and every night for the past nine days or nights. Well, this is hard to explain. Some days it starts raining in the afternoon. So that would mean that it rained during the day. At other times it starts raining after dark, which makes it a night rain. But on those days that it started during the day and went on into the night, sometimes all night long, that would mean it was a rain that covered days and nights. Did I clear that up?

The mist or clouds rolled in and obscured the rising sun.
But as the sun gets higher in the sky, it heats up the cloud
and soon it will evaporate and become one with the others.

In the mornings, (but not every morning) when I go and sit to watch the sun come up, sometimes it is bright and sunny for about half an hour and then suddenly the clouds drift along and obliterate everything, making it look like a foggy day. Then there is a chill in the air and my tea tastes especially delightful. I wrap up in a small blanket and listen to the birds and wait for the clouds to lift.

According to my local observers, the rainy season this year is expected to last until June, possibly until July. It doesn't rain ALL the time, but enough that one expects to get rained upon at any point during the day.

Today I went with the village doctor to see a friend who has kittens. The idea was that I might be persuaded to take one. So I went and looked and am pondering the idea.

Afterwards, she had to stop and see a patient who was elderly and not doing well. I agreed to drive her to the home and wait. It turned out that the home was also the local bar and while I was waiting I was approached by the owner with a beer in hand wondering if I wanted a 'cervaza' (beer) while I sat there. He was eager to talk, but if I was having problems understanding Spanish with a sober conversationalist, I was totally challenged by one who was already drunk.

Feeling like the lad holding the reins of the horse and carriage while the doctor was making house calls, I patiently waited for her return, fending off the eager talker and noting that the rules of privacy (HIIPA) in the U.S. are not anything like what happens here. Everyone's health or issues are discussed throughout the town and it is expected that everyone knows pretty much everything about all the other people living here - local or otherwise.

That is NOT a walking leaf, it is an even larger version
of the same kind of BUG I presented awhile ago - I feel
that the rain is helping these critters to grow... or some-
thing is... if  you try to pluck them off to move them,
they grab onto you with a fierce and scary strength!!

There was a revival at the Catholic Church earlier in the week. Apparently there was also an exorcism in the middle of it, and some young woman was cleansed of the devils beleaguering her. When I went to get a pedicure at the 'salon,' this morning, the whole revival and the thrilling activities connected to it were being heatedly discussed, including by a young man in a POLICIA uniform who was getting a manicure. (Men do that here quite unashamedly.) I didn't understand everything that was being talked about, but the facial expressions clued me in that they didn't really like what was going on in the church.

We are about to enter the Holy Week; the sacred time before Easter morning. Everyone is getting more than a little anxious and the city is expected to be filled with tourists and escapees from other parts of Colombia. The choral group has suffered a few losses due to restaurant schedules but the few stalwart voices remaining (me being one of them) are pushing on to prepare for our concert during that week. Stay tuned for more exciting news from the northern Andes!