Yesterday around 4:30 in the afternoon it started to rain big fat enormous raindrops and didn't stop for about 12 hours. This is unusual for a couple reasons. The first being that it should not be the rainy season anymore and second because when it does rain here, it is never for that amount of time. Other places in Colombia, sure, but not in Cali.
The streets were flooded past the curbs in some places and looked more like rivers. Within seconds of stepping off the bus I was soaked to the core and still had two more blocks to go to reach my apartment. Crazy lightning and thunder flashed and sounded in every direction around me - the kind that stays from sky to ground in a white streak for 3-4 seconds and rumbles so loud it sets off car alarms, respectively. (I imagine dogs and cats and small children across the city hiding under beds.)
Needless to say, the power went out by 5 and didn't come back on until after midnight. I read by candle-light for a few hours and then basically went to bed at around 8:30. (It gets dark here about 6:15ish all year round.)
Incidentally, I learned a new word recently that came into play during the monsooning storm. The word "mono" means "monkey" in any Spanish dictionary, but here in Cali (and maybe other parts of Colombia) it means the same as rubio(a) or "blonde," as well as the simian noun. So there I am, standing in the rain, waiting to cross the street and this guy on a motorcycle rips by and screams "monooooooo!!!!"
Yes, I have light-colored hair. Thank you. (The thing is, anyone who does not have jet-black hair is a prime candidate to be a mono(a) so it doesn't take much.) I'm positive that this is just another Baader-Meinhof; I know I've been identified as a "monkey" before, I just didn't know it. And now I will.
1 comment:
I'll have to listen for that one now. Mono. Hm. And I love it how people just randomly yell things at you as they fly by here. Even in English, comebacks always come too late for me.
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