A Country That's So Close and Yet So Far
"The rainy season is over"
Hiromi Kimoto
October 15, 2001
It's a pleasant morning with clear skies and a gentle cool breeze. I guess that the stormy rain last night has brought fresh air. Since almost ten days went by without a drop of rain, which we used to have at least once a day before that, I was thinking "the rainy season must be over." But again, the sound of heavy rain woke me up last night at around 2:30am. It was such a heavy rain as if a bucket of water had been turned over, and the road in front of our house looked like a creek. Yet even such terrible rain stops completely around 5:00am, which is the time for people to wake up and start the day, and I'm just impressed by that as thinking "What thoughtful rain..." Because an unpaved road and the trees in the gardens have absorbed a great deal of rainwater, there are not so many puddles in the road. It normally doesn't keep raining day after day even during the rainy season, and most of the time it rains in the night. So it seems that rain rarely makes people's lives miserable.
When I went to the Australian Club after returing to Vientiane from Japan at the beginning of September, I was a bit surprised. There used to be a distance of ten meters or so between the club and the riverside. Lettuce and corn were being planted there early in August, but that field was now covered with water, and the stream of the Mekong River has come so close that it was almost getting into the club facility. The following day I've received a notice from the Japanese Embassy saying "Due to the high rainfall this year, the lower reaches of the Mekong River has been damaged by flooding. Precautions should be taken around the riverside also in Vientiane." But then two days later another notice said "There is no need to be cautious about flood damage around Vientiane." Wondering if the situation could change so easily only within one or two days, I went to the club, but surprisingly, I found that the riverside had receded a bit. Then the riverside became more and more distant each day, and yesterday I finally saw young boys hoeing the field. I'm sure that the land with a lot of nourishment, which the river has brought, will produce healthy vegetables. The river, nature, and people's lives are closely connected; seeing such a simple fact right before my eyes I was filled with deep emotion.
Although there was no damage around Vientiane, some areas in the lower reaches of the Mekong River suffered from floods. I heard that some towns in the south were covered with water. They don't have a Meteorological Agency in this country. So there are neither weather forecasts nor reports of the previous day's precipitation. Some technicians from Japan seem to be keeping a record of daily temperature in Vientiane though. When we say hot or cold, it's just a difference of two or three degrees anyway, and people ride bicycles holding up umbrellas when it rains. In that kind of life weather forecasts are unnecessary. On rainy days, Ms. Simon comes to our house with a black raincoat on. When I say "The rain must be bothersome," she replies, "Yes, because I can't go as fast as usual on my motorcycleÉ." She doesn't seem to be so troubled.
The rainy season is almost over. I heard that various kinds of vegetables are going to appear on the market in a little while. I'm looking forward to that.
Translated by Maiko Noda
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