"So, how 'bout that weather?"

They say that two people who have nothing to talk about always have the weather. I am going to devote an entire entry to this much maligned subject.

The weather here is better than I anticipated, mostly because it feels cooler than I expected. It is certainly hot and humid, but does not seem as bad as Houston.

Victim of the a flood-filled pothole.

Solid cloud cover almost every day helps the coolness. Recently the cloud cover has been so low that flights were canceled because the planes cannot land in Benin City. The confluence of winds from the Sahara in the north and the Atlantic to the southwest means lots of atmospheric turmoil. It also means afternoon showers about every other day.

It has rained harder some days and some days have been dry, but I would be willing to bet on rain about every other day. The tin roof on the building I’m working in accentuates the sound of the rain, so a small shower sounds like a deadly hailstorm and a real hailstorm would likely sound like the apocalypse.

The cloudy sky also means that when the rains have finished for the day and the sun is starting to sink, a break in the clouds can mean a beautiful sunset. Bits of sunset coloring ricochet through the holes in the cloud cover. This, combined with the end of the daily rain showers, give a feeling that there is again peace in the world after the dark and dreary rain.

We were ready to say "I told you so" as soon as the engine stopped, but we made it through -- despite the water sloshing against the doors.

The routine rain and the nearly complete lack of drainage in the city mean that puddles in the road should be given names. This is because they approximate the size of lakes and never fully disappear. I have never seen the bottom of a certain pothole that we must cross every day leaving my hotel; it covers the entire road, is about a foot deep in spots, and has shrunk at times but has always been replenished by rains before drying up.