WET SUMMER, DAMP WEATHER

Nature Fights Back - The Rain

When I was still a child, we lived in a two-storey Spanish inspired house. It had a long wooden staircase that ended up in the second floor landing which also served as a receiving room. It had cabinets full of books, which I do not know where now. The receiving area conveyed visitors to the main living room which was very spacious. It was in this room where I spent most of my childhood days whenever I was not allowed to go down and meet with friends. I remembered running and jumping in the room because its sheer size allowed even all us seven cousins there. This was the ancestral house and my cousins who lived nearby always visited me to play hide and seek upstairs. There were so many rooms with a lot of nooks and crannies that swallowed us up. The second floor was every young child’s enormous playroom. On one side of the living room were windows facing the road and the sea beyond. These were Spanish windows with panes made of capiz shells. I toyed with the panes because they could be slid to and fro. Whenever my Lola saw me doing this, she always got angry. The room and the windows were very memorable for me.

During the monsoon season, which is from June to September, it always rains so hard. Because we lived by the sea, the house got to be buffeted with too much wind, seawater and sand besides the rain. What I remembered vividly well was that whenever there was bad weather then, I just stayed inside the house and played with the rain by the window panes. The rain holds special fascination to me even until now. I always love the rain. When I went to school then and it rained so hard without me bringing any rain gear at all, I just pried a big banana leaf and used it to keep me from being wet. I enjoyed being in the rain to my mother’s utter displeasure. So whenever it rains today, it brings back fun childhood memories. I don’t live in a two-storey house anymore and my sea view is already blocked with a massive two-storey Dutch house. I do not miss the wind, the sand and the sea. Although I still miss the window panes, the rain is more than enough to compensate for my childhood longing of that certain pleasure only a child knows by heart.

It’s still April and it is still summer suppose to be; however, the rain has made its presence felt a lot earlier. Could this be the end of summer? I don’t care. I love the sun but I more than love the rain. Today, I can appreciate so much the rain not only because of the happy childhood memories that come rushing in my mind but more of its practical benefits to man and the environment. Because it is summer and it is too hot, the rain is definitely a welcome respite. Any late afternoon rain that continues until the wee hours of the morning brings a restful night sleep sans the air conditioning system. The Bermuda grass and other flowering plants cannot help but turn yellow to brown during summer. They get sun burned too. They need plenty of watering, but water during this time is a precious commodity. Watering plants is not wasting water. It is not just the priority however. My hometown earns the distinction of being the “Vegetable Basket” of the region. Ours is basically an agricultural community and this is how we earn our keep. Rain and lots of rain is what we need to sustain high value crop production. Thus, rain to me today goes more than just happy childhood memories.

What brought the rain, however, a lot earlier? The weather bureau said that it’s the convergence of different weather systems that made us wetter a month earlier. Experts also have been very vocal about erratic climate change and unpredictable weather changes to be due to global warming. Global warming in return is caused basically by how much we pollute the planet. I am not complaining about the rain. Its coming though is a lot earlier and this must make all of us rethink of how responsible we are for this phenomenon. Do we still have to wait until we drown in a deluge of rain to stop destroying nature and the environment? For sure I will not be thinking of fun childhood memories by that time when I am holding on to dear life because I am drowning in my own foolishness and everyone else’s. It's a hard time ahead.