Day By Day

Within three days, the weather had changed dramatically, just like it did around Blessed Rainy Day less than a month ago. During that time, the rains stopped, marking the end of the monsoon season. It rained heavily on the actual holiday, which was a Friday, and the next day, but on Sunday, it was gorgeous and it didn’t rain again. Just like that. The humidity lifted, the sun shone everyday brightly. And that’s what we’ve had for the past weeks – glorious sun.

Now, it’s changing again. Day by day, it’s getting brisker, proving to us that it is indeed fall. The sun is setting earlier – something Scott and I missed when we were living in equatorial Tanzania – and our house will soon become the freezer box it was when we arrived in February. With no sunlight reaching its rooms and no bukari (the local word for woodstove), our house, large and cavernous in space, becomes very, very cold. The land around us is losing its rich, luxurious green, turning drier and browner as the rice paddies become harvestable.

And today, I wore my first layer under my kira, a pair of shorts, which will turn into leggings. The t-shirt I’ve become accustomed to wearing will be exchanged for long sleeves and soon enough long underwear. While I’ve always preferred warm weather, there is something undeniably remarkable about seasons, watching, before my eyes, the earth change.