And the rainy season has begun

I have declared today as the official start of the short rains in Nairobi. It rained one or two other times since we’ve been here, but always at night and only for a few minutes. That all changed today. Last night it poured for a good deal of the night, then again this afternoon there was an hour or so of consistent rain.
This period is known as the “short rains”, supposedly because when it rains it only lasts for fifteen minutes to a half hour. In my experience from today, this is false. It rains much longer than that.
The arrival of the short rains in Kenya marks the end of a drought that had been causing problems here in Kenya for several months, ever since the long rains failed to come around April when they were expected. I mentioned in an earlier post that the drought was one of the reasons for the rationing of water and electricity here, but the rationing is now being lifted in most parts of Kenya.
The arrival of the rains was long overdue for the farmers that have lost crops and the ranchers that have been moving further and further into Nairobi to let their cattle graze. The national meteorology department of Kenya had been predicting El Nino rain patters ever since we got here at the beginning of September, and over the last week or so various parts of the country finally started to see some precipitation, and now the Nairobi area too is officially out of the drought.
As much as the rain was needed, its arrival created some problems in Nairobi today. The drivers in this city are never careful or cautious, but today the roads were in complete mayhem. The streets quickly flooded, so cars, buses and matatus splashed through the huge lakes that formed over Nairobi’s busiest roads. There aren’t many formal sidewalks, even along major roads, just dirt paths of to the side. These obviously are now just extended mud pits with garbage and animal waste floating around. Some pedestrians took to walking down the center of traffic on busy streets.
By the time the rain stopped and the sky cleared up, life resumed it’s usual pace. Street vendors quickly got their blankets laid back out, their clothing or produce or DVD’s carefully arranged on top once again.
We’ve been told that the western part of Kenya, where I will be going for my internship in just one week, is expecting a few more weeks of prolonged rains. I may need to buy some rain boots, or “gum boots” as they’re called here.