laughing the hailing rain

07.06.08
Today I went for a hike! I had planned to go with my 12-year-old host brother, but I couldn’t find him right away, so I called one of the neighbor girls over and we went. Her name is Fatima, a pretty common name. As it turns out she is scrappy and curious and loves to laugh. We found my host brother, who proceeded to tag along behind us the whole time.
For weeks I have been eyeing the rock quarry halfway up one of the mountains on one side of the valley. You can see it from well over 50km away as you drive up to my souk town. It is visible as a white gash in the side of the mountain. So we set off, at first up the road and then up a dirt and rock path, scrambling a bit to short cut past several of the switch backs. It is really steep! Up the side of the mountain there is a large expanse of area that is thoroughly grazed by sheep-herders. The only things that grow in abundance are two aromatic herbs: rosemary (azier) and zushin (whose English name I do not know). Everything else is scrappy bits of grass and flowers that have managed to claim a root-holdm but not much of it. Most of the land is packed dirt and/or loose scree and rocks. There are rocky outcroppings all over the place; it is starkly beautiful and in amazing contrast to the lush green of the river floodplain and farm fields.
So we come up over the first long scramble to a long slope upward along the floor of a huge bowl in the mountains. Cutting across the switchbacks we found a bunch of cool bugs! Insects, I should say. Fatima was really helpful with giving me the names of things, which I have dutifully written down and will hopefully commit to memory over time.
Then my host brother decided that we should cut off the next bunch of switch backs by climbing straight up a rockfall in between two rocky outcroppings. Which turned out to be difficult but a lot of fun! I love rock climbing. We met a man from the village up there, where apparently he lives, guarding the entrance to the quarry. He hiked out on the rocks to us, and my host brother stayed and chatted with him. Up and up and up and then along the road a bit and we were there. Big cliffs of white calcite type rock, carved out by the quarrying. It is as if someone took a knife and decided to cut slices out of the mountainside. Very, very impressive to walk into, a little intimidating, too, as I reminded myself that this is a seismically active region. J
About then we heard the first rolls of thunder. The fluffy clouds overhead were morphing… in the ten minutes we were at the top the thunder went from random to consistent and then constant. We started walking down as the first raindrops fell. We met my host brother and started jogging… the smell of rain in dry dust rose up. The drops were startlingly cold to feel as they fell, and then began to pelt down. We passed up an offer to wait out the storm, and kept booking it down the mountain. And then the hail started falling. Lots of it! Somehow it really surprised me. No wonder the rain was so cold! The biggest one we saw was well over a quarter-size in diameter. It was so beautiful, though! Rain is precious here, and we were loving the wet and cold of it after the hot climb up. And the thunder in the air was wonderful. The view of the other side of the valley kept changing as the sun peeked out from behind one cloud or another, lighting up this rock out cropping, that peak, or encrusting a flat plain in light. We kept running and walking alternately, laughing at the hail and our increasing soaked clothes, loving it all! By the time we got back down to the village, we were soaking wet. I took the opportunity to jump in a couple of puddles. You know, seeing as I was already soaked and dirty. Totally worth it, too!!! As we walked down the village road, saying hi to people and laughing at how absurdly wet we were; I chanced to look back. There was a rainbow arching delicately over the exact place we had just ascended and descended.