The Mercy Corps Blog
A daily look into the work, thoughts and ideas of our team around the world.
Blog Post Posted July 15, 2009, 10:10 pm by Taylor Wegner
Rain, rain, come and stay
This morning at 5 am I rolled over in bed and grumpily wondered why I had woken up. My bad mood was washed away as I realized what had roused me from sleep. A low distant rumble, the soft sound of a slight drizzle on the tin roof of the guest house in Pader — it was raining!
Lately, many parts of northern Uganda have been experiencing a drought. The rains were late, by as much as a month from what I had been told. The people were really starting to worry. The ground was so dry that many could not till the soil with their oxen-pulled plows. Crops that had been planted were withering and many were far smaller than they would be during a year with normal rain. Some farmers even doubted the possibility of rain anytime soon, thus hindering the second growing season. Rumors of people succumbing to hunger even filtered in from some parts of the region.
Food insecurity here as of late is something that has weighed heavily on my mind. My worries were melted away this morning, slowly at first, and then they were washed away almost all together. The skies opened up and the slight drizzle turned into a thunderous downpour.
The rain stopped almost two hours later. Though it was time for me to get up, the lack of sleep did not bother me much. The smell of the rain and the hope it gives this area refreshed me.
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Taylor Wegner is an intern for Mercy Corps Uganda.
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