Rain, Rain Go Away

 

“If the rain comes
 They run and hide their heads
 They might as well be dead
 If the rain comes
 If the rain comes…”

 

     I can still remember the time when the second floor of our house was too high that you can only touch it from the ground of the first floor by standing on a chair placed on a table, or jumping much higher than Michael Jordan. Now, you can almost touch it just by stretching your arm and jumping a little.  Every time the road in front of us was elevated to avoid flooding, we raised the floor of our house, too. It’s not that we’re complaining; we’re actually grateful. Ondoy came and dumped unimaginable amount of rains on Metro Manila, and the streets in our place were hardly affected. The same thing happened with Ulysses. The others, unfortunately, are not as lucky. Decades ago, a not-so-strong typhoon could flood these same streets of us with knee-high water. A woman crying nonstop over a messy breakup could even flood these streets then. Imagine, if all the streets in the country are similar to our streets now, fewer people would have nightmares whenever it starts to rain hard. Rain is one of God’s loveliest creations; no one should be scared of it. Rain is romantic, rain is therapeutic, it’s one of the most exquisite languages of water, and everyone should welcome its every drop, yet, it can be destructive when you mishandle it.

     Alas, majority of streets being floodless here in Metro Manila and other parts of the country will always just be wishful thinking, as funds for most well-meaning projects here in the Philippines will always be gobbled up by greedy and corrupt politicians.