When it Rains...

Its been raining for days! Not the heavy rain that I often experience in Manila but something like a heavy drizzle. I never thought it rains in this desert (before it became a city, it was just a desert not so long ago.) And here's something they never tell you in the brochures -- it is flooded all over! According to the news on the radio the water is ankle-deep in some areas and its heavy traffic on most parts of Dubai and Sharjah, another Emirate where most of the workers live because the housing is cheaper. The flights are delayed in the airports due to some minor flooding in some of the runways.

Yesterday, my mom attempted to go to the mall just across the street to buy some coconuts for a Bicolano dish ginataang kalabasa at sitaw (stringbeans and squash with coconut milk) which she was suppose to cook for our dinner. However, the small street was flooded and she couldn't/wouldn't cross. She cooked miswa instead.


A flooded underpass, or what they call subways, along the Dubai-Sharjah Road a fter the rainy days.

I guess with all the rush and hype that came in building this city they forgot to take into account the rainy days and the amount of rainfall. I don't blame them. The rain here is so rare that you forget it ever rains. But when it rains... Oh boy! Unlike in Manila where the flood is as normal as the rain, the people here are not that used to seeing water on the streets.

Still people here love the rain. They welcome it and you can feel an atmosphere of rejoicing whenever it falls. As for me, the rain just makes me miss Manila.