Raindrops Are Falling On My Head....

Cairo, Egypt

There's nothing quite so wonderful as the smell of rain. Even above the dusty, decaying, dismal odors of Cairo, the smell of rain manages to take over the air, wake me from a dismal day. Thick, gray clouds have been hanging low over Cairo since yesterday, but I haven't paid them much attention. Cairo never gets more than a few minutes of desultory little showers every now and then ... or so I thought!

Not, in fact, the case. Today we've got real rain. Not just a few piddling drops, but an all-out, blustering, thunder-and-lightning rainstorm! It's thrilling, invigorating, and I'm not the only one to think so!

I make it a habit, when living in the Middle East, to go out and dance in the first rain of the year ... since it comes so seldom! Okay, I didn't exactly dance on our balcony, but I did go out and stand in the rain, and I wasn't the only one drawn to the windows. I had no idea that every apartment in the horrendously ugly building across the street is actually occupied. Even during the revolution, only two or three apartments showed hesitant faces at the window. Today, every single apartment raised a shutter, opened a window, stepped out on the balcony, all smiling ... though perhaps none so broadly as I!

Let me tell you, when I get home in May, the very first time it rains, I'll be dancing in it till my lips are blue!

Add that to the little tremor we felt from Friday's earthquake in Crete, and it's been an exciting weekend!

Ah, Cairo! Just when I think I've got you figured out....