The past couple of nights Marrakech has had rain. A rarity, but honestly, it has been rather
lovely. Marrakech tends to be hot and
standing can make you break out in a sweat.
In the mornings, I have been wearing a cardigan to work, opening my
windows to allow the fresh air to pass through and my students have been
complaining it is cold. Cold for Marrakech?
Absolutely, but they need to acclimate right?!
Well, tonight was a different story.
I noticed that the rain started coming down pretty hard and I became
fascinated showing Joe the rain as if he has never seen rain and
lightning. I just kept repeating-it
doesn’t rain here often. This is
amazing. I decided to relax on the couch
and listen to the rain fall against our windows. Soon, after, I heard a river. This was cause for concern. I walked my way through our apartment hoping
not to find a huge leak somewhere. Our
apartment was clear. As I neared the
front door, the river became louder like rapids. I opened the door and water was streaming
down the stairs. Now, my first thought
was not ‘oh no.’ Rather, it was genuinely confused… I asked
myself ‘Is this normal’ because I have quickly discovered here that weird
things are normal. I decided to knock on
Romy’s door and when she answered, her face said it all. I barely got the words ‘Is this normal’ out
of my mouth before Romy headed for her squeegee. Apparently, this was not the cleaners nor was
this normal. Romy and I began shoving
water down the stairs to the next floor.
We could hear other expats upstairs completing the same task and expats
downstairs like an assembly line. As
soon as Romy and I caught up to the water, more would come rushing down.
 |
| Penny and I are working feverishly to try to beat the water! |
Our floor has four apartments, which three of
them are occupied. Initially, it was
just Romy and I with our squeegees, but in no time, the Moroccan couple next to
me peeked through the door and were appalled by what they saw as well. I used my sign/body language to convey that
they water from the door was flooding in.
She grabbed her squeegee and joined.
Her husband (in very sophisticated paisley printed pajamas) navigated up
and down the stairs trying to do something I have yet to determine. For an hour, Hawaii, Moroccan and Oregon all
came together to squeegee the water from the tile floor. Cultures coming together! People were taking towels up to the top floor
trying to barricade the source of the water entry. Apparently, in a city that does not receive a
lot of rain, buildings are not constructed to be prepared for that heavy of a
rainstorm. Unfortunately, I am assuming
that our elevators will be out of service for a while as buckets of rain were
running down the shafts. If they are in
service, I think I will steer clear for a while. I don’t want to be the resident that
discovers that they are not really working.
We have two drains on the rooftop, but they could not handle the
load. Therefore, the water entered the
building via the three inch gap at the bottom.
I am one towel shorter, but now I am peacefully lying in bed. I am sure that I will sleep with one eye open
listening for more water as more rain is expected. We all agreed to wake one another up if more
flooding began.
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