Rain Rain Go Away

The world's rainforests straddle a narrow belt along the equator, and represent only six percent of the earth's landmass. I do not know exactly how much it rained where I was, but I guessed that it must have been around 100 inches a year. There was the "big wet" which was around six months long, the "little wet," around three months long, and the "dry" season, also three months long.

Traveling and working among the local peoples of Zaire, now the Democratic of the Congo, slowed me down and made me appreciate the elements. For example, no matter the urgency, everything came to a halt when it rained. Weather it was working, or meeting, or going to school, conducting business, or taking a trip -- nothing happened when it rained.

The above photographs shows a village, where I was cooped up in a hut for several days, while it rained, and rained, and rained. I was working with the local people, trapping small mammals for a monkeypox study, and we were all stuck. Such was the life of the village -- people were not bored; they sat around and talked, sang, worked on small projects, ate, and slept. The kids fiddled around with small home made toys or helped the women with indoor tasks.

Sometimes I use these images in presentations to describe the life in a Congolese village. The last photo comes with the remark, "Well, at least we had running water!"

Photos by D. Messinger