¨So you guys never lack water?¨ I give a nod. The Ecuadorian students in my agriculture class keep on staring at me. Like they don’t trust what I’ve just said. So I decide to save what I was about to tell for later. It’s more than never lacking water. The Netherlands rather has too much. A sunny day makes everything look brighter. It is about the opposite in Ecuador.
Finally, Quito got some rain last Monday. Instead of complaints and cranky faces, rain comes together with relief here. Children run out to the streets to jump in puddles. Farmers might have done the same, hadn´t they been smoking under a lean-to preparing themselves for the weeks of hard work that will follow. Only with the start of the rainy season, crops such as corn can be sowed. Without water they don’t have a chance to survive. It also means that the crops already planted are saved. And it logically increases the overall reserves of water, which always gives more security.
Unexpectedly, I also got caught up in all the emotion and bought myself some proper rain boots. Together with my yellow raincoat I could almost pass myself off as an Ecuadorian farmer. So I have been proudly carrying them around. However, without giving me much joy. No rain on Tuesday. No rain on Wednesday. No rain today. The shower on Monday only caused false hope. It seems to be hotter than in September. And that’s no good.
Except for the rural areas, the city-dwellers are getting restless too. The patron saint of Quito, San Francisco, has let his folk down. My host mother assured me two weeks ago it would start raining before last Sunday: ¨San Francisco’s holy day. He’ll make sure our province gets saved¨. I didn’t believe it back then it but now I wish he would.