The Rainy Season

When it rains, people cannot go out, the rain is so heavy every place is flooded fast. There is hail, thunder and fork lightening that comes from the sky like a bullet. Snakes come out of the ground. This is something that we do not see in the dry season. The families' rice, vegetables, chickens and all the fish growing in the ponds disappear, they just go in the floods. Because the rice crop is not at the stage of being dried and bagged it is either lost before cutting or when stacked at home. Homes are damaged or destroyed, the rain comes through the roofs, then under the doors as the floods rise. 

The constant rain lasts for anything up to two months, then on and off for another two months until the dry season, spring, starts. This is when people can start to planting again. Having lost all the growing crops when the rain starts before they have done the harvesting creates a shortage of rice and vegetable and raises the cost of fish and meat.  People have to borrow money to start planting again and the cycle starts once more. 

When it is the rainy season the wind comes like a cyclone, trees and houses are blown down. Everybody is scared and they go under the beds to be safe. When it is over they all come out to see what damage has been done and to help those who are trapped to get out of their homes. 

In my youth, the schools would be affected and have to close as we could not get there, there was nothing to do we just lay around at home, some children would go out to swim in the flooded rice fields. We could be home until the floods had gone. It was good when we could get back to school. 

The people who were cut off would cut the banana trees to make a raft to get to the main road or to a shop. The banana tree is light so floats.When I remember all this, I think we have to build some shelter where people can go to have contact with others, have something to eat and a break from the monotony and isolation of having to stay indoors.

Written by Mohammed Ali - co-founder of Seeds of Growth. He comes from Birahimpur, Sylhet.