Thunder & Lightning

I think I owe my love of a good storm to my mother. I remember when we had the rare thunder & lightning storm in Edmonton, she’d wake the whole house up to come & watch the light display from a window. I’ve always felt sorry for people who fear the loud cracks of thunder, and who can’t appreciate the natural lightshow. Or maybe I should owe my fearlessness of a good storm to my Pop…after our drive through Edmonton’s notorious tornado in the 80s. Or maybe it was the time we went to Ottawa and my folks let me & my brother throw on our bathing suits and play in the warm rain. Perhaps it’s because rainstorms were so rare in the parched prairies of my memories. Any way ya cut it- I love a good storm!

But today I must confess that I was nearly in tears after an hour on the Lusaka roads in a rainstorm after dark last night. For those of you who know me well, you know I’m probably the worst back seat driver ever. Yesterday I had my own brakes in the passenger seat and was busy telling Alvin everything he was doing wrong (he has the patience of a Saint). But seriously, after we’d had a brilliant afternoon of (indoor) basketball, we decided to head home in the downpour. We had to drive a couple friends home who live in the boonies (which is why we couldn’t stick to the main drag and be home in minutes).

For those of you who know Lusaka, you can picture the pot-holed dirt roads that lead to the residential areas. Last night they morphed into muddy lakes, illuminated only when there were flashes of incredible lightning. With the sheet lightning, the whole sky lit up, thus becoming the most effective (though brief) streetlights in a town with few streetlights.

I should also add that I have a bit of a phobia of driving at night in Lusaka on the weekends. Sadly, drinking and driving is the norm here, and after a weekend of drinking, Sunday evening the drunken folks are starting to head home. For a couple of very long stretches of road, we followed (at a safe distance) a man who continually popped his head out of his window thanks to zero visibility through his completely fogged windshield. In doing so, he regularly swung over to the wrong side of the road into on-coming traffic. He did have his hazard lights blinking, but that small fact didn’t help me breathe easier.

After dropping off the guys, we high-tailed it home. But not without incident; Alvin thought a back route would be nice to take because the drunk drivers were sticking to the main routes. We headed slowly into a road that looked fairly flooded, but manageable. Thanks to another flash, the sky lit up, & we were able to make out just how flooded the road was. Alvin pulled to higher ground to turn round, as a Corolla chose to dive into the same road without caution. I was watching out the back window as the water nearly reached his tail lights. Unbelievable. I wonder too if that gentleman made it home last night.

After these travails, I will admit, I was almost in tears from exhaustion (and I wasn’t even driving). I was so happy to be safely home, and thankful to be in a dry house that I didn’t even lift the curtains to watch the light show- sorry Mom!