Swazi Storms

As I've said in one of my earlier blogs, the weather in Swaziland is really silly and always unexpected.
About a week ago on a Saturday, I woke up to this very sunny and hot day. The sun was shining and I felt so happy for the sun to finally come out again, so I wore my maroon dress with my sandals. I was happily gallivanting and spending time with Pernille and Karam at their house. Around three o'clock I looked out of their window and I saw these enormous black clouds hanging just above Mbabane, moving very rapidly. It was three o'clock but it felt like the time of closing the curtains and cuddling up on the sofa with tea and biscuits.

We needed to go to Mbabane for some shopping so we quickly jumped in the car and drove down the hill.
Just when we almost arrived in town, the big black cloud literally hit us; rain, hail, wind, thunder and lightning surrounded us. We had to hold the windscreen with our hands or fists so that the hail wouldn't crack the glass. This reminded me of a story my papa told me from when he was young and lived in Nigeria. The streets turned into tiny rivers with the huge amount of rainwater that fell down every second.
We parked the car in a sheltered place so the car wouldn't get any damage from the hail, as we weren't sure how big the hail would get.
We crossed the street to get our shopping done at Pick&Pay, I was still wearing my dress because the weather changed so suddenly that I didn't have time to change clothes.
Inside Pick&Pay the storm seemed to rage so hard; when I thought the sound the hail made on the roof of the shop couldn't get any louder, it did... At least we were safe and sheltered from the storm inside the shop.

When we walked out of Pick&Pay into the mall, I saw that both entrances of the mall were completely flooded with brownish water. The water was still rushing through, women with broomsticks were trying to go against nature and tried to sweep the water back out. In vain. We tiptoed out of the mall as to not wet our feet, but saw that the mall had become a tiny island in the midst of brown wild rainwater. We needed to cross the street to get back to the car, so our only option was to take off our shoes and walk bare feet through the water.
I took off my sandals and went for it! The water was ice and ice cold; it touched my ankles, even though I tried to walk on the tip of my toes.

When we drove up again back to Waterford, I expected it to calm down a bit. I was so wrong, we were literally driving through lightning. There was no delay between the lightning and the thunder, and it scared me.
The roads were all covered in fallen leaves and branches, everything was muddy and wet.
When we arrived home we were in the course of making a lovely supper when the electricity went off. We lit candles (which made the place so cosy and romantic!) and to our great surprise the electricity already came back after an hour. We decided the only solution to soothe this evening was to watch a movie and go to bed early...

Now that I've been here at Waterford for a while, I'm already dreading the day that I will have to leave. Waterford has left a mark on me, I made so many good friends and I have experienced so many new things. (People who know me well, know I hate goodbyes.)
But the thought of seeing my parents and sisters again in Cape town with Christmas really really cheers me up :)

Lots of Love,

Laura