Rain!

A word not many people like to hear. In Nairobi especially.

Rain causes havoc.

It rains and it floods. Nairobi doesn’t boast of a good drainage system- if any. It rains and the roads are flooded, pools of water are everywhere you practically have to hop skip or jump to avoid landing in one. Those driving do not always pay attention to pedestrians and proceed to splash you with muddy water and never ever stop to apologize or show remorse. And if you have a ‘jirani’ and you think s/he will be kind enough to offer a ‘lift’, forget it! Ha!

It rains and the cars multiply by a hundred-fold. Literally. Then traffic from here to Timbuktu builds up-I mean Uhuru highway, Kenyatta highway and all other roads become a grid-locked. One time it rained and a trip from Westlands to town which would normally take 20minutes with little or no traffic took 2 hours! Yes, 2 hours. I sat in the car at that time and thought, what is the traffic cop doing? Is he asleep? Can’t he effectively perform his duties? Never found an answer to why rain=traffic.

It rains and fares go up by a hundred percent. Oh, Matatus are special. {Read Matatu Madness} A drop of rain changes a lot of things. It changes the fare. It changes the routes- that's because Matatus will prefer to go to Embakasi and make a 'killing' than go to the Ngumo route! Basic profit mathematics for them!

Ladies are the worst affected... there are those who got out of the house with dressed like its summer time! Then it rains and people look at them thinking ‘really?’ Must admit I have suffered this once. The sun was out so I thought to myself ‘time for that nice dress’ shock on me! It was 4pm and it suddenly rained cats and dogs and it hailstorms! Freeze and shine is not a predicament a girl would like to find herself in! Then there are those with weaves… I shall not comment. 

Its amazing how the rains sometimes just start at a peak hour… 4pm. This is not a bad hour. The worst of it all is when you are in the office counting down the minutes to 5pm and at 4:48pm the skies open and it pours!

Luckily today the rains started at around 3pm so by the time it gets to 5pm (am crossing my fingers and all) I pray that the rains will be over. The cold I can handle but the confusion that comes with rain, uh-uh!

We should all develop a habit of checking the weather forecast. It will save us a lot of trouble-me thinks.

If it’s raining and you are in your house; warm cuddled with a blanket or a hot cup of chocolate or with your significant other then you are happy. Otherwise, misery!