Rain on tins roofs

The winter is just beginning in Nicaragua. It hasn't yet been officially announced but almost every day there is a bit of rain and I have awoken several times during the night to the sound of rain pummelling the roof above my head.

Sometimes it's just the normal sort of rain that we get in the UK: hard enough to get wet but nothing to be fussed about. My Nica mama comments that the flowers are getting watered and I have to think about taking an umbrella to the bank.

Sometimes, however, the rain is torrential. Thunder cracks and the lightening flashes through the whole sky. Drops the size of almonds start to fall and within a minute or so you cannot distinguish one drop from the next as there is so much water.

The first really hard rain in Jinotepe happened one Saturday morning while I was pottering around in the house. In seconds the noise was so much that even shouting at each other had little effect. The roof, in places, visibly moved, adapting to the pressure of the water and the guttering sagged with the weight of all that had to be discharged. In several places cracks that had developed during the dry summer began to let in drips or streams and an army of buckets and pans were quickly employed. In parts of the gutter that had for months been accumulating leaves and dirt water overflowed in all directions.

You might say that this was the first test of our roof in the new season. All summer we had not been concerned with its upkeep; letting little flaws develop with no consequence, but this heavy rain picked out all of the faults.

It seems that equally in the easy, sunny weather periods of life we can let little flaws develop with no consequence. Miniature cracks in the parts of our character that we are not caring for, an accumulation of rubbish in various parts or a lack of care to maintain good habits. Then, when the rain starts to fall, we start to notice. Maybe a light light rain we can cope with: the umbrella strategy. Maybe we can even see that a little watering does us good. But when the heavy rain starts to pummel on our tin roofs, then we notice the faults. We are put to the test; have we cared enough to keep in good condition? Can we discharge the water effectively or will it splash out everywhere? Do we keep dry or get wet?