Flooded!

written Monday, 13 August 2007

 

 

I am currently in Thies for a few weeks of training.  Since it is farther north in the country than my site in Tamba, the rainy season hasn't really started here (the rains start earliest in the south and move north).   So it has been really hot here, hotter even than my village is right now, which I was surprised by.

 

But yesterday evening it finally rained a bit here, just for about an hour in the late afternoon.   Everyone was so happy to have some rain to cool things off a bit, even though it does make the mosquitoes worse.

 

I went to bed last night just a little after 9 pm, happy that for once it was cool enough to get a good night's sleep - the two nights before that I hardly slept because it was just so hot.

 

But the lovely cooling rain soon turned into a downpour.  Around 1 or 2 am (I looked at my watch, but with all the excitement later I've forgotten what it said) my host family came banging on my door to wake me up.   When I stood up to answer the door, my feet stepped into two or three inches of water.  I opened my bedroom door and saw that the rest of the house was flooded too.

 

My host family immediately rushed into my room and started trying to move my things to higher places to save them.   I grabbed my purse and various electronic items (camera, cell phone, a laptop I had borrowed from another volunteer for the weekend and was horrified at the possibility that it might be destroyed by the water), and then I urged my family to leave my stuff and go take care of their own stuff.   But they insisted on trying to rescue the rest of my stuff (just clothes, toiletry items, and some books) which by now were floating around in the rising water in my room.  

 

When my family was finally satisfied that my stuff was protected as much as possible, we went into the living room and stacked tables on top of chairs (the chairs were actually sturdier than the tables, so it made sense to do it in that order) to try to have a dry place to sit.

 

Within an hour the water had risen almost to my hips, and looking out the window at the street, it looked like it was even deeper there.   The water was moving fast, carrying lots of random objects, like a refrigerator.  My host mother wanted to send one of her boys out to try to get a taxi to take me to the Peace Corps center, but I insisted that it was too dangerous to go out and that I would stay with them.  

 

I worried that soon the water would be so deep that we would have to swim out of the house and climb up onto the roof.   And I worried that we could be electrocuted sitting in all that water (I was sitting on a metal table with my feet in the water), since I could see streetlights not too far away, meaning that the city hadn't cut off electricity to our neighborhood, even though the power was out in our house.

 

And I felt terrible for my family, sitting there and watching everything they owned floating (or sinking) in the dirty brown water.   But my host family continued to amaze me with their kindness and selflessness - all night long, they just kept telling me how sorry they were that my stuff had gotten wet and that I wasn't getting any sleep.   As if their only concern in the world was their duties as hosts. 

 

After a few hours the water finally began to recede, so that at about 5 am we could go out onto the porch and look at the yard. My host brothers went over to the door to the compound and started bailing water into the street.   We discovered that one of the walls separating my family's compound from the neighbors had collapsed, blocking the door to the latrine (rather an urgent priority of mine at the time, having been up all night - where do you go to the bathroom when you are standing in standing water? I figured out the answer, but I will spare you the details).

 

Around 6 am I called Peace Corps and was told that they would send a driver to pick me up at 7:00, and since I obviously could not continue to stay at my host family's flooded house, I will stay at the Peace Corps training center, until other arrangements can be made.  

 

So at 7:00 I left my host family, who continued to be amazingly selfless, refusing to give me my filthy, soaked clothes, insisting that they would wash them - even though I insisted that I could do it myself, knowing that they certainly have enough other work to do.

 

So I am fine, having suffered little more than the inconvenience of a night of no sleep, lots of mosquito bites, and no clean clothes of my own to change into (a friend brought me clothes to wear).   But my poor host family's house is ruined - aside from the collapsed outer wall, there are now some ominous cracks in the walls of the house.  And of course all their stuff is soaked and filthy.

 

I know they will salvage everything they possibly can - they were talking optimistically about putting the bed mattresses in the sun to dry, but given how filthy the water was, I doubt they will ever be usable again.   My host family rents their house, and my host mother is hoping to find a new house to move to, since this one doesn't seem safe anymore.  But moving will be expensive, and they don't have any insurance to help with the cost of replacing their belongings (when I asked if they had insurance, they laughed and said 'This is Africa').   And all their neighbors are in the same boat, so the African tradition of solidarity and helping each other out won't help much here.

 

So please, if you feel inclined to help, get in touch with my mom (if you know me) or email me at aidworkr@gmail.com .  I know that my host family would really appreciate the help.  And being the kind of people they are, I know they will share any assistance they receive with their neighbors.