Return of the Rains

April 7, 2009

The rains have returned – much to my surprise. Apparently it rains every Semana Santa so I should not have been too surprised. With the rain some cooler weather has sailed in which is a great delight. Rain at 2:00AM meant that I had to run out of the house and shut the car windows which I had left open in an attempt to get rid of some unpleasant odors. It also meant no morning run unless I found some extraordinary motivation at 6:00AM (which I did not).

The trucks and buses arriving today with the sound equipment, chairs, food, and cooks from the city ran into some challenges on the muddy roads and drives. I got to help try and push one small truck off of the grassy area where it had tried to turn around. The biggest task I found for the day though was trying to help people set up their tents. I think that tomorrow I will try to walk around and give tips to the people coming in. I have realized that most of the people do not know how to keep the inside of a tent dry. Last year a majority of the tents were flooded and this year is starting out that way. There are two important techniques to teach: 1.) No impact camping (leaving only your footprints when you leave – not your trash and a trench that you dug around your tent) and 2.) how to put up a tent in a way that will keep the rain out. I guess that we will see how tomorrow goes.