Dadaab showers

Rainstorms in Dadaab take your breath away. One minute the skies are blue, the sand is blistering under your sandaled feat and the sun is so hot on the back of your neck that you feel like an ant being tortured by a 4 year old with a magnifying glass. The next minute you can hardly hear because the rain is crashing down with such intensity on the tin roof above you. Even those with excellent focus must stop and stare wide-eyed out the doorway as curtains of rain pelt the sand below. The rain stops 20 minutes later and everybody exhales seemingly simultaneously, as if in their awe-struck observation of the  turbulent rains, they'd accidentally held their breath the entire time. This part of the world has been dry for far too long. Crops have withered and bore holes have run dry. But now the rains have come again and the Somalis breath a sigh of relief. The last several months have seen tens of thousands of their brothers and sisters flee for their lives and too often collapse with starvation. Now the rains have come and God willing, a breath of rejuvenated life.