EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT THE WEATHER, BUT NO ONE DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT

That's one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes.  Many of you know that, among several other ways, I am a huge weather nerd.  When I was young, I used to beg to stay up until 10:15 so I could watch the weather, and then as I got older I would actually plan my time around things like the Weather Channel's Tropical Update, which came on at 10 'til the hour, every hour.  At one time, I could name every anchor on the Weather Channel and have considered getting tattoes of cold fronts and perhaps even awkwardly-located low pressure systems.  So, I am very excited that one of the things we will soon be installing in the Valley is a fully-functional weather station, which we will connect to the internet so that the whole world can share in the joy and excitement of knowing what the barometric pressure in Benitzul Ulpan is at any given time.

There are practical applications of this as well.  It is good to know precipitation patterns when you are doing things with water: are there times that springs might go dry, would catching rain off rooftops be sufficient, how high would a bridge need to be over the river, and so on.  Because climates in the mountains can vary from place to place (if you refer to them as "microclimates" you will make Weather Channel anchor Jim Schwartz proud), we really cannot rely on any data from semi-nearby places like Guatemala City or Coban.  So we need this, right?  It's not just a toy.  I promise.

The past couple of weeks have really been impacted by the weather in the Ulpan Valley.  As one might guess, it can often get somewhat rainy in the tropical rain forest - it kind of goes with the territory.  But sometimes it gets exceptionally rainy, and this is one of those times.  The locals refer to it as "chippy-chippy" or "mus-mus-hab" which are synonymous for rain that just goes on and on.  We have learned that all 7500 people here are qualified to work for the National Weather Service.  They all seem to just know when it will start raining and when it will stop.  In the mornings, if other people are putting their clothes out to dry, you can bet that the rain is going to hold off for most of the day, but if you don't see them out, you can expect to get pretty wet that day.  A couple of days ago, one of the men working with us on some construction projects, Manuel, told Kris and I at about 7:00 in the morning that a concrete pour was possible that morning because the rain was going to hold off until 2:00.  It started raining at 1:59.

Aside from some long camping and hiking trips I've had, it's easy to forget that we have done a really good job of insulating ourselves from the elements.  We don't really "live" in the weather - we prepare for it and tolerate it and predict it and at times just complain about it.  The flood in Nashville of May 2010 was a stark reminder that there are things in this world that we are completely powerless over.  We get reminded of that every day here.  In the past couple of days, many people in Guatemala and Mexico have died in floods and landslides.  It's not an everyday occurrence, but it is a common one.  Yesterday, we drove to Guatemala City in the rain and 30 minutes after we passed a particular spot on the highway a landslide occurred and blocked all 4 lanes of traffic.  A smaller landslide keeps recurring near our home in the Valley, and many mornings over the past couple of weeks 15-20 men slop out in the mud with picks and shovels to clear it as best they can.  But it keeps sliding.  And they keep working.

The people here are resilient to the sometimes difficult conditions.  The men work in the fields or on construction projects under tarps (or not) in downpours and the women walk for hours, often barefoot, up and down muddy mountains to the market or to obtain water.  It's just a way of life.  A few nights ago, as we tried to listen to the podcast from last week's service at Otter Creek, the rain on our metal roof was so loud that we couldn't hear it.  So we had to content ourselves with discussing some prayer items and taking communion (which consisted of hot chocolate and popcorn - close enough, right?).  To top things off, we had a somewhat-unnerving earthquake one night during a rainstorm.  But thankfully there was a huge nerd at our house who had the USGS earthquake website among his Internet Explorer favorites and within a few minutes we were able to determine that the shaking was, in fact, a 4.5 earthquake and not an entire mountainside sliding off on our heads. 

God is God when it is raining and when it is dry and when the crops grow and when they don't.  He's also God of the things we only talk about and of the things we can actually do something about.  He's God of the weather and God of water systems built and yet to be built.  It's a rainy and exciting time for us in the Ulpan Valley.