Wednesday 11 March 2009

When the rain comes down-

Very soon and if it hasn’t started already, the rainy season would be here with us again. In Ghana how you welcome this rainy season is a function of X and Y.Y being where you stay and X , what time of the day it is.

Y-Where you stay

1. You stay off an untarred/murram/gravel road or whatever you call it, your hopes and anticipation might be different from someone who stays at a place like Labone or Cantonments.

First of all when the rain begins you start thinking of whether the open choked ‘’boller’’ gutters (if you have any at all) will do their work. Will the gutters allow the massive outpour to flow or are you going to have a second Korle/Kpeshie/Chemu Lagoon on your street? For some lucky people, (like me) puddles/small ponds/mini gutters will form on the road and you will have to skip, sidestep, jump and even summersault as you make your way in the early morning to work. Occasionally you will get a car splashing dirty water on you (this is usually done by the the private car).
If this is your lot, be grateful, for this is Ghana.

If despite the massive bigger than olympic size gutter which is still choked and not able to flow the rain water, thereby causing a stagnation, then due (not the english due but the akan demerifa-du-e) In this scenario skipping, sidestepping, jumping or no amount of summersault will help you out. Because in front of your house to as far as your eyes could see, there is a mini Wli falls and unless you are a Jet Li kind of person you have to wade through the darky waters. You take off your nice Kant/Kejetia black brownish shoes and wade through the waters as you try to remember who the Assemblyman for the area is. There is nothing to be shy of because even the dadaba boys and girls next door are doing the same thing. When you get to a safer dry part of the road you shake off the waters and troubles off your dirty feet ,put on your shoes and gallantly make your way to work.

X-Time of the day

Your hopes and fears of the falling rain is also dependent on the time of the day. When the rain happens to fall during the night you curl yourself into a ball and quickly pull the ntoma over your head. You enjoy the thundering rain and pray that it lasts all night long.

If on the other hand your roof is similar to Agba Maame’s sieve then you quickly jump out of bed and grab some buckets and pans. The number of pans and buckets needed, is also direct function of (z). z being the number of holes in your ceiling. You will not enjoy the rest of the night because the unmusical sound of Ton..,,,ton,,, in your pans and bucket will not allow you to sleep. Again depending on the windy conditions the rain might change its speed and direction, in which case you have to reposition your buckets/pans again. This situation is however not a direct function and no computer can draw an algorithm for you. Instead of enjoying the rain, you pray for rainy nightmare to end quickly. If you are a married man, then be prepared to do all the work because the lady will not lift a finger apart from pulling the ntoma over her head and pointing you in the direction of the falling rain droplets.

When you are at work and the rain starts you pray that all the louvers are positioned correctly. If your roof leaky, you lift up your head towards the heavens, then you give a quick shout of prayer ; ‘’ashbi ishkabala ..'' and all will be well in your shack.

So when the rain comes what do you do?

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