"Salt from the Heavens!"

I wish I were referring to a revival, but I'm just talking about the weather. The calendar says it's the end of September, but it's spring here in Madagascar. The rainy season of summer will officially begin at the end of October, but we had a taste of it earlier this week. We were in uptown (no one says downtown but us!) Tana late Monday afternoon when the sky started to get dark and cloudy. So we made a dash to the bus station to catch a taxi-be home. No sooner had we crowded into the aisle seats of the taxi-be than the rain began to fall. When we were about halfway into our commute, it started to hail. The windows at the front of the bus wouldn't close so the teenage girls sitting next to the driver began to shriek! They were getting drenched and pummeled by hail. Then some men began yelling for the driver to pull over so that the helper (the man who rides at the back of the bus to take the money) could close the window. After some maneuvering and more screaming, he managed to get the window to close most of the way. We got back on the road but had to pull over again a little while later to get some gas. It was then that the driver decided to close his window, for which the drenched passengers in the seat behind him appeared to be quite grateful. But his window wouldn't close so he tied a piece of cloth across it. Then we set out again. The hail continued to fall. The men in the seat behind me began to gasp and point to the sides of the road. There were big piles of pebble-sized hail, which they were calling "salt from the heavens." Truly amazing for a place that rarely sees the freezing point on the thermometer. Yet at that moment, I was more interested in the streams of water coursing down the walls from the window tracks, for once very happy to be in the makeshift seat in the aisle rather than next to the window. Along the road, rivers had formed, gushing with red soil-tinted rainwater. Unfortunate pedestrians still trying to make their way through the storm were sloshing along up to their ankles in water and muck. When we reached our stop, the rain stopped long enough for us to get home. Many tree branches had fallen and some flowering fruit trees were damaged, but the rice crop seems to have escaped unscathed. If it were any later in the season, it would be detrimental. We were without power for a several hours as the storm ensued on into the night. Overall the storm wasn't that bad but I can't help but wonder what the actual rainy season will be like. I'm just thankful this city built on hills doesn't see snow or ice. That would really be an adventure!