An Unexpected Downpour
A I peered out the window I said to Michael: “If we were now in South Africa, I would have told you that there is a thunderstorm on its way!” His reply was a very cynical, yet apt: “Not a chance. You are in the UAE.” Not long after this exchange the wind started picking up, and a dust storm whipped up huge amounts of dust.
I quickly scrambled as far away from the window as I could, as dust storms aren’t my favourite weather phenomena.
Not much time elapsed before Michael suddenly interrupted our conversation with a puzzled: “I could have sworn I just heard thunder.” Moments later his suspicion was confirmed, just as big, fat raindrops started to splatter onto the window panes. “Well,” I thought, “how is that for reading the weather!” My hopes were high for a good soak, but Michael was far more pessimistic, and for a while it looked like the dust and wind got the upper hand as the rain petered out.
“Ah well,” I sighed as I turned away from the window. The battle wasn’t won yet, and soon afterwards juicy rain drops 
returned and even managed to find their way into our house. Nothing here is really built to keep water out, or to allow for water to drain away, but at least we needed only one bucket inside the house to catch the thin stream of water pouring in. The direction of the wind drove the rain through the open door leading into the building, and to prevent a mini-flood from rushing through our front door Michael had to quickly sweep out the gathering water before we could close the doors. By the time that was done, he decided that the unexpected rain could be well utilized as a free car wash, but by the time he pulled his car out, the taps were suddenly turned off, and the joys of rain fizzled away.
It all lasted only a couple of minutes, but the temperature cooled down to a very pleasant 34°C directly afterwards, and we quickly opened all the windows to embrace and welcome the unexpected clean, fresh air. The unfortunate result of the weather was that our newly installed Internet and TV services were abruptly brought to a halt, only to resume again two days later with a visit from the Etisalat technician. I was just as glad to see him, as I was of the rain.
