Storm

I woke up to the sound of my tin door creaking open, then slapping itself against my mud hut. The trees shivered in the wind, and for the first time since I came here, I shivered too. It was still dark, but I heard my mother and sisters outside preparing for the coming storm. Using my recently acquired wisdom about Africa, I deduced that it must be about 5 a.m. I checked my watch to verify -- it was only midnight. My room lit up with the approaching lightning. The wind picked up again, and my door continued to slap my small hut awake. I resolved to wake up completely, undo my mosquito net, tiptoe around my lantern, suitcases and other items spread across my floor to my door. I wedged my metal door shut and reclosed the screen door. The only sound left was the wind through the trees (my family had finally gone to bed). The wind was rather peaceful, and I prayed that it would soothe me to sleep before the rains began. Lightning. Then thunder. Then lightning. Then thunder -- this time louder. I got up once more, undid my mosquito net, and draped a pagne over my net to prepare for the rain (somehow the rain always finds a route through my roof and onto my face). I tried to quickly fall asleep before the rain began, but the harder I tried, the more awake I became. Then the rain began to gently tap on my tin roof. I closed my eyes -- it was loud, but not unbearable. The tapping became a steady drumroll; the drumroll quickly became pounding. The storm, in an angry rage, had stumbled into my concession and began thrashing about -- waking us up by pounding on our roofs, killing the night with its lightning, shouting at us with its thunder. It tried with all its strength to break into our modest tin-roofed huts where we unsuccessfully tried to sleep. My leaky roof, mosquito net and pagne did surprisingly well. They held their own against the giant bully of a storm. This, however, did nothing to help me fall asleep. The storm's tantrum lasted three hours before it sauntered toward another village. For three hours, I listened to its tantrum. Finally, I slept.