The rain came in unexpectedly, a few drops tapping on the forest leaves as Jean Luc and I came back up from the pump house. Then as we checked a support piece for the pump, the sky grew darker and big drops started to plop on my back. A few minutes later the Lusekele kids came running back from the peanut fields, soaked to the skin but thoroughly enjoying the sheets falling from the sky, the puddles and a break from the fields. Of course any runoff from the roof means fewer trips off to the spring, so the kids were collecting the little streams in small buckets or plastic jugs.I guess rainy season has really arrived. Already two big rains have fallen since the beginning of August. With the second big rain about 4 days ago the scramble to plant fields began. But it's so early. The season usually starts rolling along about the last week in August. There is still a risk that this is just a false start. But the third rain yesterday guarantees that there will be enough moisture to keep germinating peanuts alive and growing.
The bathroom water barrel is dark gray from the field-burning soot washed off the roof. But people aren't complaining. Water from the sky is a lot less trouble than walking to the spring over a kilometer away.
In another couple of weeks, the trek to the spring may be history. The water pump that Spokane Valley Baptist Church helped buy finally arrived last weekend. If the young boys finish breaking rock for gravel, the pumphouse floor can be poured on Monday. Then, we can start installing the pipeline to the tank that our Missionary Partnership Team and friends helped cover two summers ago. The reading in chapel this morning was from Psalm 107: "Thank the Lord, for He is good, His love for us endures forever. Let all people whom the Lord has saved praise Him." Nice reminder.
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