Hear, the rain is coming

 

A phenomenon I experienced here for the first time is the fact that you can hear the rain coming. Yes, you read that correctly. You can hear if rain is coming.

In this region, rain often falls in heavy downpours. Tropical showers with a force you rarely see in Europe. In Rwanda, het country of the thousand hills, those showers can be very local. One hill is transformed into a muddy mush and on the hill next to it the dust is still enthusiastically blowing in your nose. But usually that storm moves gradually over the city.

Where I live I look straight at Kyovu, another hill. That's where the business heart of the city is and therefore where most of the tall buildings are located. When a storm hits that area first, that stretch of hill just disappears from view. The heavy rains form a curtain with no see-through.

But even when I am not standing on my terrace watching the curtain closing, I can hear that the rain is coming. This is how it works: the rain falls with force on the roofs of the houses on the slope. Most of the houses and cottages have corrugated iron roofs. That makes noise. All those houses together act as a giant sound box, announcing the rain, so to speak. That's how I know it's time to take my things off the clothesline and close windows and doors. It is just a matter of minutes before that violent cloud hoovers over my house dropping its heavy load. The driveway turns into a river of brown water flowing in under the gate. The already potholed road will soon be nothing more than a slimy and slippery mass of mud in which it is difficult to stay clean and upright.