Gray is My New Favorite Color

Jess writes:

So you might have noticed a ‘brief’ mention about heat in our last post… in case you missed it, it’s hot here! (We’re sure you caught that though).

What we failed to mention was the water… or lack thereof. The water in our town is turned on only once every two weeks for a few hours – which means, all households that share one of the few water spickets in town are all expected to converge civilly on that location every fourteen days, haul their numerous five gallon jugs to the tap, and fill them in a calm and courteous manner… and then get them home, somehow. We’ve only witnessed tidbits of this epic adventure so far, but it seems to go less than smoothly on most occasions.

Thus, heat and water are an issue… in case you missed it again (ha!).

Now, let me tell you about the gloriousness of the color gray: First, gray skies in the morning means a slightly longer stay before the heat starts. Second, gray skies in the afternoon means an overcast day with glorious protection from that damned sun. Third, grayer skies means drizzle and the once annoying weather pattern that is drizzle now makes for beautifully cool and breezy days. Finally, even grayer skies means rain… rain means even more beautifully cool days and even cooler winds and… wait for it… WATER!! We collect rain water in buckets and basins in the yard and from the gutters into the JoJo - a water container attached to the gutter system. (I only wish I had 50 more buckets to cover our whole compound to collect this heavenly liquid!!) In fact, I’ve become so obsessed with rain that I’ve begun my own rain dance whenever I see gray skies looming long enough to possibly promise rain: “Ngicela Invula! Ngicela Invula!” To pronounce this correctly, be sure to use a soft click on the ‘c’ and you must raise both hands towards the sky while bending your knees in beat with the song – it’s actually a wonderfully embarrassing little dance. (The Africans in our training village saw me do this more than once and wondered what the crazy “Mlungu” was doing, but when it worked a couple times I began to create a following of crazy co-dancers! Ha!).

So you see, this ‘gray’ color that used to signify depressing days with an overcast sun and ominous clouds, now signifies, quite literally, our American salvation – it keeps me out of this so-not-American heat, it keeps my American skin away from this far-too-near sun, and it keeps my American hair clean… that is, from being washed more than once every 3 days!!

So bring on the clouds, bring on the rain, bring on those solemn days without sunshine… Bring on the gray!!