A Rain Storm

Romi crashed the airplane on landing. It will take a month to fix. In a couple of weeks we should have our new airplanes, but until then, we are grounded. We have been giving the students ground school, getting them ready for their written exam next week.

The visibility has been too poor to fly, even if we did have an airplane. The locals keep telling me that when it rains, the air becomes clear and you can see forever.

It rained the other day. The first real rain since I arrived last November. Thunder, lightening, torrential downpour - it was very spectacular. The winds gusted over 50 mph, and the rain lasted about an hour.

It left behind clean trees, plants, roads, shallow puddles, and air. I had not realized how dusty everything had become - even the air. Now the air was clean, and the colors of the earth were brilliant.

The visibililty was still bad, so we still are not able to fly.

The paper reported that several people were struck by lightning; one died and the rest seriously injured. If you are on the road, there is no where to go for shelter.

A UN helicopter went down in the storm, killing everyone on board. The official cause has not been released, but I can guess that they got caught in the wind and slammed against a mountain. The chopper burst into flames. Photos of the wreckage show blackened bits and pieces on a pile of ashed. The crew was Russian, and there were 3 Nepalis aboard. They have not told us who else was there.

A couple of fallen branches took out the power that night. I expected to be without electricity for days. We were up and running by noon the next day. What Nepal lacks in technology, they make up for in manpower. There is no labor shortage here.