Waiting out the monsoon rain

After lovely weather in the morning we had a real monsoon shower this afternoon, accompanied by extremely loud thunder and lighting for atmosphere. I loved it, and it was so muggy beforehand (not that the humidity was that much less afterwards, these last few days even the locals have been complaining vocally about the humidity), that it was very refreshing, and the slightly cooler temperature and the breeze was very pleasant. We were just heading down the stairs for a tea break, and I saw this rickshaw driver waiting out the rain at the entrance. This photos doesn't show how heavy the rain was, but if you look at the ground and the drips on the bicycle, you get a few clues. Coming home was fun, especially once we got off the main road to drop my colleague from TLM Canada at his guesthouse, which is fairly near mine, but along several back roads which were partly or completely underwater. Sadly as we'd been sitting in a traffic jam for about an hour it had got too dark to even hope that photos would come out, but it was quite something, like the worst of the spring tides on Arran, but with much browner water! We had a nasty scrape off a pothole, but the minivan seems okay.

Another long day of meetings, though long in brain use rather than hours, as it was almost a 9-5 today, which was the first time we'd managed it. Piet gave a special appeal to try and work less hours, as the incredible commitment to the job, or rather to the people they serve, that The Leprosy Mission Bangladesh staff show can mean that their families don't see nearly as much of them as they would like. The meetings today and tomorrow are looking at implementation of the TLM Bangladesh strategy, and involve some pretty big decisions. The senior management team members who are staying in the guesthouse with me are still not home yet though, we're planning dinner about 8.30pm. They at least will miss the worst of the traffic jams, which are quite something here.