Oh, the rainy season!

Rain is a beautiful gift from God that is absolutely vital to create and sustain life. That said, I'm not a big fan of the rainy season. We are in the middle of summer right now- but I'm wearing long sleeves and sweaters indoors. Why is this? The rainy season. From about December through February, it rains...a lot. And when it rains, the sun goes away and it becomes very cold in La Paz. Because La Paz sits at a staggering 12,000 ft., the sun is the main source of warmth for this city. When it's gone, I become a sad girl. Growing up in Florida has taught me to appreciate and enjoy heat and sometimes even humidity- I pretty much feel like an alligator here.

Well, I'll stop complaining and explain what else happens in the rainy season. Floods. Now, La Paz is one of the largest cities in Bolivia and relatively metropolitan. But, it is build in a gorge and along the sides of crumbly peaks and mountain edges. It's not uncommon for mudslides to wash houses away, but I was unaware that this was common in this city. After a good thrashing of rain last week, I felt like the city was beginning to crumble apart. There is a river that runs through the whole city and all of the water from upstream comes rushing down into the heart of La Paz. As Scotty and I were driving home one night last week, we saw the river leaping and raging out of it's normally calm bed (quite a bit lower than the road) and up over the retaining wall into the highway. Traffic was rerouting itself to avoid the danger. We found out later that the bridge we cross before ascending into Malasilla was covered with the rushing river, which usually lays 20 feet or so below this. Other bridges collapsed, and sadly, about 30 lives were lost in that evening. This was definitely another reminder at how precious life is and how quickly it is taken. We didn't suffer anything so tragic, but the surges broke a water main, affecting 200,000 residents- including us. We haven't had running water in the house for 3 days and our 12 2-liter bottles we bought a few nights ago (thinking it would come back on before too long), are quickly running out. I'm taking showers at friends' houses and begrugingly watching my dirty dishes stack up before my eyes. Then, to top it all off, our electricity went out this afternoon. I'm not sure how long that will last... I've heard that the water company will be rationing water for the next 10 days- 8 determined hours per zone a day of water. I think ours was supposed to come on at 3 this afternoon and last until 11 tonight. I should probably get home and wash some dishes and fill up bottles, but I'm so much happier outside of the house right now.