Student Post: Kali Fairchild on Monsoon Season

Kali Fairchild wrote this blog post recently, before monsoon season ended here in Coimbatore. Enjoy!

I wish I could have everyone understand monsoon season here in Coimbatore.

Everyday around 4 or 5pm the rain comes. It comes suddenly and does not come gradually. I always seem to get stuck in it. Thursday it came as we walked home from class, and last night it came right when Becky and I got off the bus to pick up our new glasses. Within minutes the streets flood and pond like bodies of water form.  Autos, 2-wheelers, and cars brave the storm and drive through the foot of streaming water. Stores instantly take out there plastic covering to salvage their merchandise.  Most of the Indians crouch under any covering they can find. Then, there are those silly Americans aka me.

Can't stop the auto.

I’m bound to get wet so why not just go for it? Rather than go around the ponds of water I simply trend through them. Umbrellas are of no use when you are treading through ankle deep water, although I wear my rain jacket in hopes of keeping ½ of me slightly dry.  I of course run through the dark brown water in case any snakes or creatures are luring beneath.  This does cause stares and laughs to surface among witnesses but what to do? It is reassuring to know the origin of some of the unidentified brownish material; for I did see that child “going” into the open drainage earlier and that man “relieving” himself by the tree a few minutes prior.

Oh yes.

The rain lasts an hour or more and then ceases.  I venture back home and hang up my wet clothes and wash my dirty feet in the shower. I lay out my soaking wet books and hang my backpack up to dry. Just another day here in Coimbatore and loving every minute of it.