I knew the word, but not the meaning of it, not really. Living in Brazil for years, I knew hard, heavy rains, and long rainy spells. But monsoon — ! Not until now. We had rain on and off all day Friday, and scurried with our newly-bought umbrellas from one spot to another, and in between rain spells around the well-maintained streets of Pondicherry, east of the covered wastewater canal. We got into our taxi in rain and drove the 12 km to Auroville in Rain. We settled into our little bunkhouse in RAIN… and then all watery hell broke loose, and it came on and on and on in sheets and in buckets, in waves and in tides, until all you saw or heard was falling water. The land here was desertified 40 years ago, and has been reforested (remarkably successfully)… with major earthworks to catch and contain moisture. Still, the sheer volume of water per minute flooded everything, and had us walking ankle-deep from the dining hall to our room.

Oh, did I forget to mention? Monsoon really begins in a couple of weeks; this was just a "warm-up".

But today dawned without precipitation, the morning cleared for a little sun, and now we are actually enjoying a bit of our environment. In a few minutes we will be visiting the Matrimandir — an amazing meditative heart of Auroville. So — time for Manny to get his mail, then off we go. More later!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010