One day last week we had a meeting with a government official here in Mang Thit. As we were walking home Linh, our translator, and I fell back behind the pack to discuss our meeting. As we walked a sudden storm came up. It poured and poured. Linh, Hang and I sought shelter at a little pink gas station on the river. Bill and Daina had made it far enough ahead of us that they would continue on to the house. We stood under the awning and waited for the rain to subside. I asked Hang about the effects of the rainy season in Mang Thit. How often the river flooded. He told me the water may breach the bank in November, the late part of the rainy season, but the flood would not do much damage because of the road that had been built several years ago. The downpour got progressively worse and we finally retreated inside the shop. I spied a door on the other side of the shop that opened up to the river for approaching boats to pull alongside. I made my way over there and stood to watch the storm on the river. As I stood in the massive doorway I could not even see the other side of the river. I wondered what would happen if I fell in at this point. I laughed and dared myself to inch closer to the edge. The shop-owner came over and stood with me. She seemed entertained by my awe. After a few minutes I went to sit with Hang and Linh. He asked me if it rained like this in America and I got to tell him the story about my father and me walking through a hurricane one summer in Angleton. That was fun, I love to tell stories. Just about as soon as I was finished telling my story the rain stopped and Hang decided it would be safe enough for us to continue home.
As we made our way we found the beginnings of the damage this storm had done to our community in a period of only about 30 minutes. Together we moved limbs off the road. Linh picked up a bag full of fruit from one limb that had fallen. We continued sweeping small branches off the road with our feet all the way home. At home we found that our neighbor in front had a tree fallen on top of his house. We had a broken window. Our neighbor to the right had a tree fall across her fence and at Hang’s house their kitchen area, a grass thatch roof had actually fallen in the storm. We got changed into work clothes and got to work. Our neighbor was already on top of the roof cutting limbs off of his fallen tree. Daina, Linh and I went to work moving the limbs to the back of the yard where they could be burned later. In the road Hang and Bill chopped away limbs from that fallen tree and eventually moved it to the side of the road. We then made our way over to Hang’s house to take apart the roof over their kitchen area so it could be repaired and put back up in the coming days.
As I sit here today longing that the rain would go ahead and pour and make our coffee hour even more sweet, I watch the clouds roll on by. The clouds brought some relief from the heat. I guess I can settle for that much for the walk back to the house.
