The rains down in Africa...

For days the earth cried out for nourishment like a baby cries for a mother.  The Kenyan savannah was dry, the ground cracking due to lack of rain.  "The rains will come in February," we were told.  They never came.  We waited with anticipation for the coming day when the clouds would burst forth with the glorious sustenance creation so desperately needed.  Then it happened.  One evening, in the darkness of the night a rain drop fell on the mabati roof above my head.  At first, such a sound went unnoticed.  But when that single drop was joined by its comrades, one thing became certain: the rains had come.
It is these rains that are so iconic to the African setting.  Most places below the Sahara desert have two seasons: the rainy and the dry.  The rains mean that people can eat.  The rains mean that animals grow bigger.  The rains mean that there is life.  Everyday during the rainy season, these reminders of life are visible all around.  Perhaps it is this overwhelming sense of life that makes one miss the rains down in Africa when one becomes separated from them.