Running Barefoot Through the Rain

...is something of a unique experience for these kids, as this city has seen rain twice in the last four years. They often get to run through flash floods coming from higher up in the mountains, but today it rained. In Mukalla. This was a pretty big deal. So this was the view from our balcony this morning - two kids, back and forth through one giant puddle, laughing, tireless.














Later on in the day we took a drive with some friends down the volcanic coast, heading west. Got through the armed checkpoints with pleasantly little difficulty - nobody even hinted at wanting a bribe - and stopped at a beach about an hour later. The storm was moving west, too, so we started out in the rain but soon outran it, knowing that it would catch up later, and catch up it did. We were sitting on a promontory of lava (not the molten kind:) enjoying the view, which looked like this:



















And then the clouds rolled in and everything became very dark and wet and windy, like this:



















The surf was pounding in and the rain came sideways, wind-driven through our best defenses. It was a lot of fun, and after a while the clouds broke and out came the sun, and best of all, a magnificent rainbow:)














We chased the rainbow back east for a while, until it was right in front of us, between the car and the hills - it was so broad and clear and close that we could see the view through it, and that made me want to go stand inside it, which of course I knew to be impossible. But that didn't make me stop wanting to.

This country is beautiful.