After my first official 'beach day' here in Bahrain, I'm feeling a bit melancholy- I'm homesick for a Hawaiian rainstorm. I mean a heart-pounding rain squall where you feel it in your body so deep that it resonates throughout and leaves you in awe of how beautiful it sounds, and feels.
The type of downpour that draws you out of your habitat to experience it in full glory. It almost brings tears to my eyes how much I miss this right now. All those sugar shacks I lived in in all those gulches on the north shore of Maui... the feeling, the vibe, the soul of the island- it gets in you. It seems in your skin, into your cells and co-exists with you. You are transmuted and transformed into this gelatinous being that feels so holistic.
My new home has its perks and the weather is gorgeous right now. I feel that the next 5 months will be fantastic. I'm already sleeping without air con AND a fan.
But my mind drifts back to my Islands... I'm drifting on a cloud right now over 5 corners and I see myself on my run down Haiku Road. I can smell the wild grasses. I can smell the farms. I can smell the farm animals. I can smell the fresh rain mixing with the pavement. I can smell that one divine eucalyptus grove right below 5 Corners. That smell intoxicates me like the most delicious drug ever.
There are over 500 terms for 'rain' in Hawaii. The ancient Polynesians had a name describing every type of rain. It's so interesting- what your reality is and your surroundings, and the words you develop to describe that experience collectively as humanity.
I want to experience rainfall here in Bahrain. I want to experience that psyche. I don't think I want to experience it here while driving though... Admittedly, drivers and driving is a horrible experience here. Even though this is an island nation, the 'island vibe' does not exist where driving is concerned. Everybody is in a hurry to get... somewhere I suppose. I really try not to let things bug me when I live abroad, and I've avoided the entire 'road rage' experience in both Turkey and Tunisia due to not driving.
Here... I'm driving, and it is nerve-wracking. Where is my big, lifted 1988 straight front end Toyota Truck when I need it. I would feel safe in it right about now... Besides, what a hot car that was.
So, yea. driving in the rain here would suck because people tailgate here. It's like a compulsion. If you've ever driven with me, you know I'm Miss Slowpoke driver- mostly because my vehicles were always so archaic!
Back to driving... I've never seen so many accidents as well, or so many random car parts strewn across the highways. I'm talking like entire front ends just barely off the lane...
Shall we delve into the round-abouts here? Why yes, I think we should. So, they are great, generally speaking, with moderate traffic. Here the traffic is so heavy that they typically slow down the natural flow of traffic. Some of the round-abouts have stop lights and these are fine and efficient. Many, though, do not and it is chaos. Of course, I'm not used to them either...
Let's get back to driving rain though. It makes me happy, as opposed to the thought of driving in the rain here. I recall so many evenings leaving Paia Town or coming from work and it's dark and I just passed Hookipa Beach Park and Maliko Gulch and suddenly... yep, driving rain pelting my windshield. Sometimes so hard and fast that my windshield wipers couldn't keep up. It seemed that some nights I was all alone on the road and the only one to experience this. I recall going up East Kuiaha Road sometimes and seeing gravel from the road coming down as I was going up. Mud, debris, and waterfalls splashing from the sides of the gulches. What a trip, those experiences.
So I'm making myself homesick right now. I want rain. I want my truck. I want rainbows. Double rainbows. It'll pass. This yearning for Hawaii passes just like the rain squalls on the north shore...
Okay, gotta run. Another friend residing in Saudi just made it across the border so we gotta hit up the city tonight
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