It is the middle of rainy season in Nigeria. Rainy season, which starts in April and ends in November, means that the temperatures are milder and it rains regularly. When I first arrived here, it rained every day or every two days. We had a weeklong reprieve before the rain started again last week.
The rain can be a blessing and a curse. It’s nice to sleep while it rains, and it can clear smoke and pollution from the air. However, rain makes the air more humid, so after a rainfall the smoke and pollution linger and turn the air yellowish-brown.
In such a damp environment, mold and mildew flourish so people with allergies (ahem!) can be miserable. Things stay damp in general—clothes gather a musty smell and they aren’t fully dry before you wear them, and papers curl in the humidity.
The rain does not necessarily cause traffic hold-ups. If the rain is really bad, only the most intrepid venture out, so the roads are relatively clear. However, the rain causes bad flooding and when cars eventually appear, traffic gets really bad.
One of the pictures above is from the drive to work last Monday morning, after it had rained all night. The other was taken a few weeks ago from our office window.
