Perhaps Mother Nature has PMS?

It is the rainy season here in Guatemala from about May-November and so a bit of rain was to be expected. It was not however, expected to rain quite so much. Mother nature seems to be getting a little whacky and I feel like telling her to take some Midol, eat some chocolate, and just calm down!
We started the season off with Tropical Storm Agatha which left everything pretty much inundated with water. After that, we had a number of sporadic rain storms that have left homes and villages flooded.
Once I arrived here at my site there had been quite a few of these heavy rains. They usually last a day or two and being that we are on a mountain, the waters just flows down like a river. During one of these rain storms we heard the neighbor across the way crying and yelling. Yolanda and Rodolfo went over to see what was going on and they found the woman's house was full of mud. The back wall of her home, which was pegged up against a hill had simply gave way and in came the mud and rocks from the mountain. The woman was devastated and cried as she surveyed the few of her belongings buried in mud.

Here are some photos of the nieghbors house... it should be noted that hers was probably not as well constructed nor sturdy as our house.

After this rain storm, Yolanda noticed water entering into the kitchen in our house through the wall. (Our house is 3 rooms in a row, mine in the middle, with the kitchen on one side and the family's bedroom on the other). The house is situated much like the one across the road, with one side of the house pegged against the hill. As the rainy season persisted, the water continued to seep in through the back wall of the kitchen. One evening as I was crawling into bed I noticed that all my pillows were wet. I looked at the wall to see that water had been seeping in there too and because my bed had been pushed up against it, the pillows had absorbed the water. I moved my bed away from the wall and called up Peace Corps. While it wasn't a lot of water, I still felt nervous because of the woman's home across the way. A few days later my boss came out to survey the house and said it was safe and sound and there was nothing to worry about. A few weeks passed and I soon forgot about the issue and moved my bed back to it's place against the wall.

Then.
Just last night...

I was just about to settle onto my bed to watch a movie. It was a chilly and rainy night and it seemed like curling up to watch a movie was just the thing to do. Just then I looked up and noticed wet spots on the walls. The water was collecting on the wall like beads of sweat and then dripping to the floor. I called Yolanda and Rodolfo's attention to it and they said it was nothing to worry about and suggested I just pull the bed away from the wall so it doesn't get wet.
I believed them.
They had told me, "It's not serious. Nothing serious will happen, if God doesn't want it to."
But what if God does want it to? Or what if it's not entirely in God's hands?

Anyway, I took their word for it and settled down onto my bed to watch the movie. It was really nice listening to the rain from beneath a warm blanket. I distinctly remember the lovely aroma of the fresh rain, -it smelled damp and earthy. After a few minutes I decided to grab a little snack. I clicked pause, swung my legs over the side of the bed and fumbled for my sandals. My feet hit the floor with a splash. and I thought, a splash? how strange...
I quickly realized that my entire room was flooded. About 2 inches of water was sprawling out from the wall and reaching almost to the door on the opposite side. The damp and earthy smell indeed turned out to the be the rain but in fact it was much closer than I had thought. The lake on the floor was spreading and had already soaked a few items that were in its path. I called to Yolanda and Rodolfo and the came to help me move my things outside. I guess there must have been some distress in my voice because the little 6-year-old Miriam kept saying, "Graciela, don't be so afraid, don't let it scare you it's just water!"

I told her of course I wasn't afraid... It was just a little surprising how quickly the water was coming in. We moved my bed out of the room and the wall where the water was leaking in looked like those peaceful Japanese fountains that people put in their homes. The water poured steadily and silently down the wall like a slick pain of glass. Lower on the wall there was water pouring out, not quite so gracefully. It was flowing through none other than and electrical socket...
Unlike peanut butter and jelly, water and electricity don't go well together and I began to feel nervous about the spreading puddle on the floor. We quickly moved everything off the floor and got most of my belongings out of the room. We moved my bed into the family's room where I would pass the night sleeping with Yolanda, Rodolfo, their six year-old daughter and their 5 month-old baby. It was a cozy arrangement to say the least and the little girl has been sick with fever and a bad cough for the past few days and spent half of the night suppressing coughing fits.
I was very grateful for their help and offering me to sleep in their room. When I awoke this morning the sky was still gray but at least the rain had stopped. Yolanda and Rodolfo had swept most of the water out of my room and it appeared to have stopped flowing in through the wall. It's still quite damp but I have to say that the floor has never been cleaner! It practically shines! So I think I will start moving back in here little by little and hope that the rain stops for good.

The wall, where all the water seems to be seeping in..

I spoke to Peace Corps and they are adamant about me looking for another house... This is bad news because I am very happy living with this family and I know they would be very sad to see me leave. I agree that it would be better to live somewhere a little dryer and with less risk of natural disaster but I know it will be difficult for my family to understand that I am moving out of necessity and that it has nothing to do with them...
Anyway, we shall see how it all turns out.