The Rains

The Rains are here. They began last week and it’s very exciting. It gets really hot and then suddenly there’s a rumble and then a few spots and then it rains. It’s hard to describe but it rains really, really hard and just when you think it can’t get heavier it does! The downpour doesn’t usually last long and is often in the afternoon and once it’s finished we go and jump in the puddles, although they dry up very quickly. The garden is looking even greener and we might have some grass soon. I thought that I was doing quite well as far as bugs were concerned but I didn’t realise that there is a whole extra set of creepy crawlies that appear in the rains. The bongologos (meaning lots of legs) are enormous centipedes, I saw one about 20 cm long and really fat but I am told they get bigger. The flying ants are not so cool, they swarm just as we are putting kids to bed and then by the time the kids are asleep the ants are termites (or is the other way around) and their wings are everywhere! There are obviously more mosquitoes; we had one in our bed net a few nights ago and in desperation (we were sleeping badly anyway) got up at 1am, sprayed the net and watched an episode of “Sex and the City” and returned to bed 20 minutes later! The crawling ants have been driving us mad, one crumb and within minutes there are 100s of ants. We can’t leave dirty plates on the side in the kitchen because it would be covered in ants. And cockroaches, I don’t think that I have seen them before, but they are really nasty. Apparently you shouldn’t squash them with your foot as that releases all the eggs onto your shoe! One more top tip for this time of year, don’t wear white t-shirts in case you get caught in the rain!!