Racing Mother Nature

So we are well into rainy season here in the Philippines and as much as it can suck at times, life goes on. There are some things that are very convient... we NEVER have to water the garden ourselves, the kids get a bath while riding their bikes and people tend to stay indoors so the malls and I think that my umbrella is SO cute that I love any excuse to use it. Of course there are things that are annoying too... the way jeepney drivers seem to forget how to drive as soon as that first rain drop hits the windshield, the squished frogs I have to hurdle over on my runs and having to carry a purse big enough to fit my umbrella.
I think that we've been fairly lucky since we've been back. The rains have hit almost everyday but only briefly and not during a time where the whole day is ruined. It's usually early in the morning or in the evening. This gives us most of the day to go about our business with the occasional afternoon bike ride in the rain. Unfortunately for the guys trying to build the basketball court behind our house are finding it difficult coming to work everyday to spend the entire morning bailing water out of their construction site by hand using buckets and tossing the water into the empty lot beside them.
Yesterday morning Brayden noticed that there were 'hundreds and hundreds of worker guys' out back and they were getting ready to lay the cement. I'm pretty sure that they would have had more then enough time to get the cement in and laid all nice and smooth IF they used a cement truck. Unfortunately these guys spent most of the morning sifting sand in preparations to mix it with the water. They would then fill a sack with the sifted sand and walk it to the mini cement mixers and pour it in. It would follow with another guy close behind with a huge bucket filled with water and he would then pour that into the mixer until that bit of cement was ready to be poured and they would tip the mixer over and they would smooth it out.

They were at this all day. In the early evening the dark gray storm clouds started to roll in while these guys are setting up their lights getting ready to work right through. Then the lightening storm starts and the pre-storm winds are picking up, the coconut trees are blowing and you just know it's about to flash flood but they are still out there working as hard as ever trying to get their cement all laid! The rains start pouring and their lights are swaying and flickering like it's a huge electrical hazzard and they are still right there under these flickering lights getting the cement laid. When I went to bed last night the rains and fizzled out into a light shower and the poor worker guys were still going at it. I have no idea what time they finished but this morning when I woke up there were only a few of them left out there smoothing the cement and eating their breakfast. Hopefully they all get their deserved rest after last night. I just felt so sorry for them working as hard as they could as the lightening lit up the sky and inevitable rains were on their way!