While Irish people are very familiar with rain, I have rarely seen it rain it Ireland the way it does here in Panama. On Friday it began to rain at 12 noon and continued until 9pm. This was not drizzle or just heavy rain, it was almost as if everywhere was under a power shower.
The sheer volume of water falling means that there is a lot of water that has to run off the roads etc. All over the city there are large storm drains to accomodate this type of occurence but, unfortunately, people are inclined to dump rubbish in these drains which causes them to clog which, in turn, leads to localised flooding throughout the city. These floods exacerbate an already chronic problem with traffic transforming a commute of one hour into one of three or four hours.
Friday's rain was so intense that it literally washed away the earth from under a mango tree (which is a very large tree). Its roots no longer having protection, the tree fell - on top of one of the cars of the seminary causing significant damage.
When this happened two things followed - people descended on the tree to retrieve the mangos and the car was covered with a cloth until the insurance company can come to investigate what happened.
When the rain stopped the usual heat came back and we were treated to the sight of steam rising from the basketball court as the water evaporated.
It is evident that the newly-refurbished chapel has a problem with water seepage and damage can be seen at various points in the ceiling. If this is not addressed there will be trouble ahead - it will be interesting to see if something is actually done about it as my impression is that expectations of work being well-finished are not high here. Time will tell.
I got news last night of the death of one of my community in Ireland. Fr. Jerry Hickey OSA has been sick for the last while with leukemia and finally succumbed to his illness yesterday. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam, RIP
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