So, we’ve had some weather!  This was taken at noon on Wednesday — yep it got that dark.

All last week we had cloudy skies and showers.  Mother Nature amped things up beginning on Tuesday.  Toward the end of the school day the sky turned black and what looked to be a thunderstorm turned into an all out rage.  I’ve never seen winds and rain like that here.  I rarely saw storms like that back home — even during Monsoon season.

So you can imagine the craziness that ensued with the girls.  Tree tops bent over to high five the ground while water rushed in through the doors.  The lights went out in our classrooms.  At first the girls were so excited, but then some of them got really scared.  Some cried, and I can’t blame them.  I wanted to cry too because trying to maintain some sort of order and keep them away from windows and calm in a corner was pretty much mission impossible.  But, we all survived and eventually the storm subdued and the girls went home.

The drive home was just as crazy.  I video taped one of the roundabouts, aka new lakes, but can’t post here because apparently I cuss a lot when I’m scared.  I don’t know how my car didn’t flood out, but I’m so grateful — Thank you Hyundai for whatever you put under that car to protect the engine.  Almost every roundabout was flooded beyond belief, and Al Ain has a LOT of roundabouts.

This was Tuesday.  5 a.m. Wednesday I wake up to torrential rain.  My balcony is now a swimming pool, and I’m worried water will seep into my apartment (humdullah!  it never did).  Check my messages and discover that whoop!  whoop!  school is cancelled for the day.  Of course I’m happy to have the day off, but I’m also relieved to not have to drive in the roundabout madness again.  A river is now also flowing right in front of my complex.

My neighbor sends a text to all of us inviting us to her place for breakfast.  Long story short throughout the day we celebrate the madness together.  Around noon the biggest storm hit, and we watched it from my balcony where we learned that we now also had Thursday off too.

While my place didn’t flood, there were issues with other apartments in our complex.  Haneefa’s apartment flooded by her windows and she had muddy water dripping down her wall.  The alleyway between our two buildings turned into a nasty pool until Bibin, our caretaker, managed to pry open the drains.

This didn’t stop us from enjoying our day.  We cleaned up as much as we could and then feasted and played games.  I love my neighbors and am so happy to be where I’m at.

To get a better picture of the havoc this storm wreaked, though, check out this news site.  Scroll down to see random videos.  Compilation of social media videos.

Obviously my complex had it easy compared to other areas in the country, but still it was one heck of a storm.  Thursday started off sunny, but then the skies got dark again — luckily no real rain to report, so I drove to Abu Dhabi to whoop it up with my friends there.

Friday everything was sunny again, and I wish I didn’t have such a bad headache because it was the perfect beach or pool day.  Instead I came home, slept a lot, and then had a lovely dinner/movie night with Haneefa.  Hahaha we watched San Andreas Fault and wondered why The Rock didn’t come save us during our own lil natural disaster.

It’s now Saturday and the skies are brown.  Aargh, I was hoping to go to the gym and then hang out at the pool.  Hopefully, it’ll blow over and I can get some sun.

Last year we had maybe 5 rain days all year and none of them lasted an entire half hour yet alone days, so it seems to me we’ve met our rain quota in just this week.  But yay that it’s exciting to get real weather — other than our heat and sandstorms.

And, I’ll end this post with an article about the people who worked to minimize damage or save stranded folk during all our craziness.  Unsung heroes story

Oh, and here’s a link to my friend Suzanne’s blog on Tuesday’s rain.

Ewww and the sun’s back.  Woo hoo!