Rainy season has begun. All of a sudden, relying on a motor scooter for transportation doesn’t seem like such a good idea. It’s been raining continually for over two days, ranging from a soft drizzle to a moderate downpour. Nobody seems surprised by the suddenness of the change in weather, so I’m not sure if it’s going to be like this for the next four months, or if this is just the dramatic opening movement followed by an occasional sleepy adagio.

Maybe if I stay here long enough I’ll begin to think this is normal. When I see a hairpin turn on a steep mountain road, I instinctively think, “boy, I’m glad I’m not on here when there’s ice on the road.” Then I remember that there’s never ice on the road. To my way of thinking, here there are really only two seasons, wet and dry. Hot is a matter of degree. There’s hot, hot and muggy, and intolerably hot. What they think of as cold weather, during December and January, seems to be a bracing spring morning.