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There is so much talk about the imminent 'El Nino' on the radio, in the newspapers etc. but here in Nairobi it is still hot with blue skies and dry as a bone (just had a couple of short lived showers over the past 2 weeks). It is almost spooky anticipating rain to such an extent. Nairobi is still full of thin cows with ribs showing, that have been herded in from surrounding parched areas.
I reminded myself that generally you spend a lot of time wishing for rain, then when it arrives you find it disrupts things and grey skies get you down - so it's better to live for the moment. I remember previous experiences of aqua-planing on Ngong Road, tarmac breaking up making new sharp sided potholes, getting regularly soaked in downpours whilst out on school runs and shopping, water dripping in through the sunroof onto my driver's seat, brown stains appearing on the ceiling boards in our house, patches of flooded ground and standing water in the garden, the septic tank/soak away system backing up unpleasantly.
In the meantime, I have fertilizer for the garden stowed away, ready to be sprinkled at the first opportunity and for now it is fine dust and hot weather day after day.
The vegetables we buy are noticeably stunted and small - ie mini carrots, tiny green peppers etc. Electricity and food prices continue to rise. We are being warned that this rain is not the answer to all of Kenya's water/food/electricity problems - there might be flooding, damage to the landscape, landslides, farmers will not be able to bring in a good crop - so we wait and see what might happen.