Here come the rains

Winter is coming, here in Chile in the Southern Hemisphere. A rainy day here in Laguna Verde is not like a rainy day in Portland. It's like Idaho during a serious snow storm with all the power out. People can't do anything but try to keep the fire going, cook soup, and dig trenches all over to divert the water and keep checking to see if the laundry hanging all over the house is dry yet. It isn't.
We just ended 2 days of solid rain. It had only rained one other day since moving in February 1st this year. Rivers and lakes formed. The house just built and in a nearby field is now sitting about 2 inches above the new lake. Our boys and some neighbors went out and dug a channel to run the water into another unsold field. It formed a river about 100 meters long. Still, by days end the lake remained and my children swam and floated in it despite the apparent protestations of another vecino who saw them. They have strange ideas over here.
The house is inaccessible but the new owners hadn't yet moved in.
There are many people here without any indoor stoves so they have no heat. Their homes are dark, damp and cold. They cook outside on the fire. We are very thankful for our situation even though we are not far from that. We have an indoor wood burning stove that supplies us with and oven, stove, warmth and a lot of cheer. Our house was dark during those days. We chose to conserve our candles.
Within a block of our house there are 3 such families that we know. I'm sure there are many more. When we leave our little community, we pass a canyon with homes built up and down the dirt sides. The homes are shanties really, They were built by those living in them using materials at hand. They are certainly not water tight and like the rest of us, have not power. What is life like in the winter for those people. Will their end be like that of Blind Willy Johnson, weeks of dampness followed by months of sickness and then death.
What if we as a family went into these homes with smiles, dry wood, chicken soup and candles. What if we brought some cheer and hope on those dark days?
Did I mention that the rainy season hasn't even started yet. We are told that it rains during June, July and August.