Thanks be to God, we were spared last Wed. when hurricane Paula turned and went in another direction when it was only about 55 miles from the coast of the Yucatan peninsula. The night before, the governor of the state of Yucatan had been on the news on TV announcing the closing of the schools in Tizimin and east of here in preparation for evacuation of the islands and some of the coastal areas. What happens here in the case of a hurricane is that the schools are used to house the people evactuated. Because Tizimin is only about 100 miles from Cancun, it’s a relatively large city, and the highway between the two cities is direct and good, they bring most, if not all, of the evacuees here. However, Paula decided to change direction before they actually evacuated, and all we ended up getting was the tail end of the rain.
That rain, however, was enough to change two of my ideas. In a previous blog, I mentioned that flooding is not a problem here because there is no aboveground water. I was wrong. The cause of flooding here is the same that causes flash floods in parts of the U.S. When it rains hard over a period of time, the ground cannot absorb the water fast enough and it rises – fast. The torrential rains from Paula lasted about two hours, so there was plenty of water to rise. I heard the next day that some of the houses in low-lying areas were flooded with more than 3 feet of water.
My other misconception was that my house would be safe in case of a hurricane. I soon found out that it wouldn’t take long for my house to flood, and that, in case a hurricane should hit here, I would definitely have to evacuate. My front yard slopes down toward the house, which has a porch in the front. It looked like two swimming pools ready to overflow. Fortunately, the rain stopped before it did, but, for the first time since I’ve been in the house, the wind blew the rain toward the front of the house. There is a step down from the porch into my living room. Because of the force of the wind and driving rain, the water simply flowed across the porch and into my living room. The back yard also looked like a swimming pool, and, although water did enter one previous time under the back door, it didn’t this time.
There was talk that hurricane Richard might arrive here today, but the last I heard, it’s going to pass south of us, so we will be spared once again. The hurricane season ends in Nov., so we should soon be safe until next year.
I also mentioned previously that the climate had changed here and that a lot of people were sick. This past week I was among them. There’s a flu that’s been going around, and it laid me low for most of the week, but I’m feeling better now, although I’ve still got a bit of a cough at times, and so I will resume classes tomorrow.
I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned some of the toys that kids here enjoy, many of which some of us enjoyed as well when we were younger. Especially in the spring, one sees lots of kids flying kites, most of which are homemade. A lot of the boys like tops, the kind with the string that wraps around and they hurl to the ground. Two weeks ago I was invited to a friend’s house for lunch. After lunch, her three kids went into the back yard to play marbles with some friends. Last week, for the first time, I got to try a homemade slingshot. When we went to the market a little later, I saw them for sale there. I wonder what my son would say if I got one for my grandson. He’s too little to use it now, but later…..
Last week, the bananas on the banana trees in the yard of friends were ready to be cut down. After they cut them down, they gave me quite a few. The problem is that it takes a couple of days for them to ripen, but then they all ripen at the same time and have to be used within two or three days. It’s customary here for people with fruit trees to share the fruit with their friends when that particular fruit is ripe, so that the fruit doesn’t go to waste. After lunch last week, we went out to the back yard and ate oranges fresh-picked from the tree. It’s funny. At home, one orange is sufficient; here we eat 3, 4, 5 – until we’re too stuffed to eat more. It’s amazing how different the fruit is fresh from the tree. They’ve been keeping me well supplied with oranges.
The next time I’m eating those wonderful, juicy oranges, I’ll think of all of you, eating your store-bought fruit, often tasteless, and I’ll be glad I’m here enjoying one of the little pleasures of life.
