The Start of Rainy Season

Although I was anticipating rain for the entire time I was here (thank goodness that wasn’t the case!), it just began this week. And it rains HARD! It rains almost everyday for a couple of hours, and then the sun comes back out in full force. In Northern Tanzania (Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Moshi, etc) it has been raining a lot more than here in Bagamoyo, and there have been reports that at least 70 people have been killed because of the flooding. Many of the houses outside of the cities are made with just hardened clay, logs, and grass roofs, so they don’t hold up in the really bad rains. It hasn’t been bad here in Bagamoyo yet, but people are anticipating it any day now.

Below are pics of the rain. The first two are at the base where I live and the last one is a typical "middle-class" clay house in Bagamoyo. The homes in Bagamoyo are considered middle-class I think because they hold up better in the rain because of the tins roofs.