Bringer of the Rains . . .

​3 May, 2013
 
I don’t know whether to be flattered or concerned about my new moniker – bringer of the rains.  I am definitely a little concerned about what it may foretell about the coming field season. 
 
In order to explain I need to backtrack a little . . .  I arrived in Belize late in the afternoon on this Tuesday past.  Upon landing, as per normal everywhere, the stewards welcome us to the country, tell us the local time, and give us the weather.  That’s where I got my first inclination of what was going on in Belize.  The weather at 2:30 Tuesday afternoon was a scorching 95 Fahrenheit at the airport! One of the hottest landing days I’ve ever had.
 
On the drive north, my Mennonite friends were telling me that there had been no rain for over three months in Blue Creek – the last storms being in January.  Not only were the fields parched they were burning – literally!  The practice here is to slash, then burn, fields to open them up for ploughing and planting.  This year someone’s “burning” got out of control and, without the rains to stop it, it had gotten out of control and spread.  Everyone was working on creating fire breaks to try and contain the spread of fire.  The problem with forest fires, at least down here, is that even if you contain the flame, the heat stays in the roots, which burn, spread, then flare up when they find a break in the ground or reach a new groups of trees. The fire had been burning and smoldering for three weeks at this point. 
 
They also told me that now that I was here they were hoping it would rain as it seems to rain every year when I arrive.  I thought they were kidding.
 
That night at dinner at a local restaurant in Blue Creek the owner, who I’ve known for a few years, said the same thing.  Now that I was here maybe it would rain as it always does.  Thought he was just in on the joke.
 
On the drive over to Indian Church I stopped and talked to the gentleman who owns the Ka’Kabish ruin.  He told me that he and many of his neighbors were also suffering from the lack of rain.  Fires also were spreading out of control in this area and he personally had lost two fields of cane them.  Our group I that we found last year was burned clear of trees!  The main ruin, thankfully, was safe as they had created cleared firebreaks around the forest to preserve the site.  He too joked about the rains coming now that I was here. 
 
What really concerned me is that he doesn’t know my Mennonite friends, so there is no way he could have heard their joke. . . or was it? It was at this point that I started to get worried.
 
Last night a storm hit the area in full force.  At first it was just a wind, then a heavy breeze, then suddenly a gale!  Torrents of rain poured down for almost two hours.  I called my friends in Blue Creek about 30 minutes into the storm as they are a good hour’s drive west of us to let them know that rain might be coming only to discover it was hitting them too.
 
This morning, as I’m sweeping up the mess of fallen leaves, the lady and gentleman who owns the guest houses where the students will stay, came to visit me.  They said they knew I was here because the rains had come.  At this point I realised I just needed to give in and accept the fact that there may be something to this “joke”.
 
While I would rather not be associated with the rains, and certainly don’t want another season as wet as the last one (5 storms a day, every day for 5 weeks was a bit much by anyone’s standards), it is hard to be unhappy about something that brings people relief.  The fires in Blue Creek are out, the birds are coming back to my trees, and plants are, even after one rain, becoming greener. 
 
So here is to my new moniker “bringer of the rains” . . . now if I could just figure out how to turn the tap off occasionally we’ll have a good field season.