It's raining

When it rains here, it really, really rains. And almost every afternoon you can pretty much set your watch to a good downpour. Today after English classes, some of the kids wanted to play volleyball in the park, so we looked outside at the sun and went for it. I guess it got a little cloudy, but we were having too much fun to notice. Then one quiet little girl says “esta lloviendo… it’s raining.” Looking at the pavement I could see drops but still I said, “Vamos a terminar este juego… let’s finish this game!”

That was my second mistake (my first was wearing haviana flip flops to the park). In about 20 seconds the drops came harder, and then a little harder… and then we decided to run. Mistake number three- not grabbing the ball myself. Mateo, who personifies “little ball of energy” yells “Katie, la pelota!” and proceeds to kick it as hard as he can in my direction—except it wasn’t at all in my direction but wide right by a good 30 yards, right into the nearest canal. Four little ninos scream “NOOOOOO” and run toward it, because try telling a Colombian child to leave their ball behind—never going to happen! So, while the rain poured down Mateo, Jorge and I did our best to find long sticks to reach this ball, but none of us were tall enough so I held Jorge’s hand while he leaned way over the canal with the branch. I really did not want the kids to get in this water because it was the same color gray as the clouds raining on us, but I also knew we were going no where without the ball.

Well, we did get the ball out eventually, four soaking wet shoes later. And we ran the rest of the way home, me in flip flops, two boys in sopping wet shoes, and two girls just squealing to get out of the rain. I hope I didn’t lose supervisor privileges because of our day at the park!