Tropics Thunder

Oooooggg I feel like shit. It was raining really hard last night which is a good thing because there had been a drought for so long and it just seems that the earth really needed all that water, so much so that I feel kind of like a jerk for complaining over it. But seriously, if you're not familiar with rain in the tropics then I don't suppose you can imagine the kind of rainfall we experience when a storm hits. My geography teacher once described it like this huge ball of water that comes down at you at incredible speed that it almost feels like tiny, water bullets. So basically, you probably don't want to be caught outside when it's storming and that was precisely the rule that I didn't follow.

I suppose it was really stupid of me not to have brought an umbrella but quite honestly I don't think my measly little umbrella would help much in that kind of rain and wind. But there I was, somewhere around midnight, waiting at a random restaurant for the rain to dial down a bit. It took a while too because that's just how it is, long and hard (oh grow up!). When it finally stopped or at least turned into a light shower, I just wanted badly to go home so I didn't think much. I didn't think how it would have been easier as a whole if I'd gone into my housing complex through a second, much closer door to my house. I didn't think about how it'd most likely flood because the houses are downhill from the main road. I didn't think about getting some kind of transportation from the mouth of the housing complex to the front of my house. I didn't think about how the road is being fixed so no actual transportation could go pass.

So there I was, knee deep in what I can only assume is accumulated piss, shit and all kinds of waste that rose from the open sewerage system that we have. Aside from the occasional cars that would come by and generate this mini wave right at my direction, nobody else was out that night, not even the guard, or even if they were, they did a damn good job at hiding. A lone person, at midnight, treading water like the idiot I am. I mean the way to my house from the front isn't even that far but the fact that the water level was consistently at knee height and there were countless holes on the road that I couldn't even slightly make out in the pitch black of night, made it really difficult for me to even walk. And occasionally when I walk past a streetlamp, the glimmering reflection would shimmer in the dirty ass water and I would humour myself with images of Venice at night when the streets were empty that you sort of wonder if the place is actually beautiful or borderline creepy as you look at every street corner with the conviction that some rapey old geezer is lurking just behind it. But when you were at the main canal, the one right in front of the train station, everything was illuminated by light so the waters looked golden and that was what I was reminded of when I saw the streetlamp and its reflection on the flooded streets.

Maybe at that point I'd reached a delusional state, and recalling it now it certainly does sound like that. But what else was I supposed to do? Treading water in darkness while actively trying not to fall into the potholes that are camouflaged so well under water, I had to resort back into my mind. And now I feel like crap, maybe all the bacteria from the water finally caught up, I really don't know. My head is spinning, my stomach is in all sorts of boyscout knots, my nose is runny and my entire body feels like it should crawl up under the sheets all week long. Obviously that's not a luxury I get to treat myself with seeing as I'd already done that last week.

Anyway, I sort of hate the tropics.