We are experiencing our first tropical storm on the island. Chanda, as the experts call her, is currently 500km south of us, but her tail end is still giving our town a beating.
I am finding that there is a lot to learn about tropical island rainy/cyclone season in Madagascar.
While there may be annoyances for me like laundry that never dries, cooped up children and an army of outside life that takes up residence inside (aka BUGS), it is nothing compared to what our friends and neighbors endure.
It doesn’t take much wind and rain to topple over a house built on sand or a house built of leaves and flimsy pieces of metal. And that is what most houses around us are made of. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to live in a pool for days. Beds, clothes, furniture soaking wet until finally the rain stops and the sun returns. This is reality for many people where we live. There is no laundromat to dry their blankets. Everyone is at the mercy of the weather; literally praying that the sun will come out tomorrow.
We helped a friend today buy the materials needed to patch her roof to keep the rain out. She had been plugging holes with bars of soap through the night until the soap ran out. For $2.50 she can patch holes in her roof; this is more than half a day’s wages. A steep price when you are living on pennies.

That’s life in Madagascar.