Rainy Season

Thailand has begun to move from the unnerving “hot season” to the aptly named “rainy season”. Don’t let the name fool you however, just because it is rainy does not mean that it has become cooler. Days are humid and muggy, air sticks to your skin and the thickness of it makes movements a fraction slower.. If it fails to rain enough it only serves as a catalyst for the humidity, making walking feel more like swimming in your own sweat. However, if a truly great storm strikes is brings wind whipping and blows all the uncomfortably sticky air away…for a few hours if lucky.

Thunderheads roll in off the horizon and contrast nicely against the newly vivid green of the rice fields surrounding my freshly painted pink and orange school. Some storms bring with them the most awesome thunderclaps I have ever heard. They start directly above my house sounding like an explosion and the almost sonic boom of it rolls out in all directions like a ripple in a pond, ripping through the quiet of the country side. Rain has become something to rely on, I know it will come at least once a day if not in opaque sheets than at least as a lazy drizzle.

Here comes the storm!

Unfortunately with the increase of the downpours the insect population has grown substantially. I have to eat with mosquito coils burning by my legs and sweep the dead bugs out of my bedroom everyday so the vast armies of ants don’t come to my abode to consume them. Yet the worst are the hordes of disgusting flying mayfly like bugs that seem to come from nowhere. I am convinced they are aliens born to earth in the raindrops as they only appear after the rain. They have large wings that fall off leaving the once flying insect to crawl and squirm around, regressed to worm once again. The wings lie everywhere, students sweep them into large piles in the morning that look reminiscent of the piles of leaves accumulated in the fall. My beloved Pisao (big sister) Pom tells me they are delicious with rice….I think I may skip delightful snack and instead try to simply focus on the beauty of the music of raindrops on my roof.

Tukae Geckos feasting on the bug buffet

I hate them so much....ewww