It's going to be a wet one

As always, my list of new experiences here in Uruguay continues to grow, and with it my appreciation of the simple things that I usually take for granted. My latest new experience has to do with the weather and the power of Mother Nature.

For the past three months, we have been having a rather bad drought down here in Uruguay. Since this country depends almost exclusively on agriculture to sustain itself economically, it was quickly becoming the only topic of conversation. The ground was hard and dry and not much was growing. The animals were running out of food and with that the all important milk production was slowing down. Of even greater concern was that there is normally no rain at all in the month of January and very little in February. Those are the hot summer months when things turn brown and they live off reserves. Those reserves were already being used up though.

As such, more than once people asked me to pray and asked if we couldn’t pray for it in church. And so we prayed. And it did rain. On the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, it began to pour here and they received 4 inches that morning alone. Since then it has rained every day and they have gotten more than 16 inches of badly needed life giving water. The world is again green.

With the rain came another phenomenon which I had been warned about, but had not yet experienced: an empty church. It seems strange to me that people would miss church just because of a bit of rain, but I guess I understand a bit better now. When it rains here, it pours … hard. It poured so much that Sunday morning that the water began to flood the ceiling. It dripped throughout the side hardest hit by the rain and as it fell along the walls and floor, collecting in puddles inside the church, it burst the spotlight I had turned on for the statue of Our Lady.

But that is only part of the story. It again needs to be recalled that most people don’t have cars here. Most of those that don’t actually live in the village have to either walk or catch a bus. Some have cars, but far more common is a moped – not much fun in a downpour.

The next issue is the roads – they are what actually prompted me to write this whole segment. Most of the roads here are just dirt. The better parts will have gravel and the really god roads will be paved, mostly. What I mean is that as it rains here, the roads deteriorate very quickly. They usually have no proper foundation and as such even the paved roads become rutted and potholed in a matter of hours. The dirt roads become a nightmare and at times are impassible.

Last night I discovered yet another issue with the rain, flooding. Not being from hurricane territory and not having been in Iowa in the spring, I have never seen real flooding and could not really imagine what it can be like. Don’t get me wrong, things aren’t at all bad here. They have not overbuilt their rivers and dams like we have and so mostly the water has just filled the plains in a natural way that is in no way harmful. In fact, I had heard nothing about problems with water – until I had a problem myself.

Last night I went with Fr. Juan to visit a family. As we were returning, we were less than a mile from home when, at 11 o’clock at night, we had to turn around. We were unable to get home because in the time that we had been gone, the river rose so high that the only bridge into city from that side was flooded with 3 feet of water. To get back, we had to drive 45 minutes to pass over a dam and access the city from the other side. I wish I had had a camera with me – it was incredible to see the water more than 10 feet higher than it had been a week before. Before trying the dam road we first tried the only other bridge available. It is located on a back road and is seldom used. When we got there, all we could see was the moon beautifully shining on a lovely lake. There was no sign at all that there even was a bridge – it was completely submerged.

Like I said, every day brings something new…