It’s still rainy season in Senegal. Apparently, this rainy season has been especially tumultuous. It rains at least a little bit every day and it seems that we get a couple major storms a weeks. You can tell when a good storm is coming in because the temperature sudden drops from a sweltering heat, the winds get a little out of control, the big dark clouds encroach in from the southeast. The first time it stormed in Koumpentoum, I was a little freaked out because I have a metal rooftop and even the slightest bit of sound is amplified times a hundred. My first couple nights in my room I was a bit alarmed by the sounds of lizards scurrying across the roof or a gust of wind. By now, I’ve adapted well enough to sleep even through major storms.
About a month ago, Koumpentoum endured a storm that it had not seen in years. I was awakened at 4:30 a.m. by my next door neighbors (my new neighbor that rent out the rooms next to mine) because their room was beginning to taken over by flooding waters. I opened my door to see that the water had also reached my door though had not yet infiltrated my room. It was still raining heavily. The entire courtroom had flooded and water was about thigh-deep to wade through. An unoccupied hut that my family had use for storage completely toppled in the storm. By 6:00 a.m., the rains had abated and I went back to bed. When I went out that morning, I saw that many boutiques and buildings in Koumpentoum had fallen in the storm. Many of the roads and paths were flooded. Most of the water in my courtyard had receded and my brothers were picking through the ruins of the fallen hut. Koumpentoum even made the evening news with its epic storm.
My host brothers picking up the fallen hut.
The flooded street outside my compound.
I thought that the rains were finally beginning to subside this month. I was wrong. This past week, Koumpentoum was pounded with rain every day and two somewhat destructive storms. In the first storm, I was fast asleep at 3:00 a.m. when my neighbors’ wall toppled down. I woke up the next morning to find my neighbors moving out all their possessions, a mason throwing globs of cement on the side of the building, and my counterpart, Balla, at my door explaining that I need to spend the day collecting my things to move. Even though my room had not fallen in the night, the building had begun to collapse. My family cleared out one of the younger boys’ room and cleaned it out for me to move all my stuff to a safe location. I’m now completely moved out of my room (including the plastic covering for the floor) and living in the main family compound “temporarily”. The next night, another big storm came through and caused the 2nd portion of the building to fall. Yet again, my room still stands, but now two-thirds of the home is collapsing. I’ve been away at site for the last couple days to help out a project in another volunteer’s site. I’m heading back to site tomorrow. I’m really expecting my room to still be standing. I’ll find out tomorrow. My family thinks that I need to spend the next four months in my refugee room (that is connected to another room and does not have a private douche like my last room) to wait out the rain season and the chance to rebuild. Next week, a Peace Corps support staff person is coming by my site to hopefully work a more expedite solution. Inchallah.
The toppled room from the first storm.
The collapsing building after the second storm. My room is the last one standing on the end.
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