Raya Stories Part 2 - The Water That Poured Down From The Sky

Living in the wettest place in the country is not easy, let me tell you. It rained all the time, any time. One minute the sky was clear and the next you'll see dark furling clouds gathering at the tops of the hills. You may need to take the clothes out to dry in the sun three or more times a day. And you would get reprimanded by your teachers for not turning up for the extra curricular activities because seriously, you thought it had rained where school is located. And in town, people take bets on if it is going to rain or not.

So when it rained last raya - heavily, mind you - we were not surprised. The rain poured out of the sky for a good couple of hours before we noticed that uh-oh, the parit behind the house had overflowed.

We checked the main drains in front of the house and yeah, another uh-oh, that had overflowed too. Not only that, rain water was gushing in through the gates like someone had let water out from a big dam. The newly upgraded six-lane trunk road in front the house contributed to all that of course. The roads are built much higher to yeah, you guessed it right, avoid the roads from flooding. By doing that the houses, my mum's in particular, got all the water instead. And the drains all around the roads are too small for all the water to pass through efficiently.

Water had already covered the first step up towards the house. There are only two steps to get into the house, you see.. My mum took all that in her stride (I told her it is because we are home, she know she can rely on us. Kalau tidak, sure mak dah panik..). The children were happy and excited, jumping up and down watching the water. Our couple of heroes worked in the rain to lessen the effect of the water - unsuccessfully.

Then as quickly as it had started, the rain stopped. The heroes cleaned the terrace floors. But uh-oh - guess what? It rained cats and dogs again.. After that we just watched and hoped the rain would stop before it cause any serious damage. It finally came to a drizzle, maybe about 5 hours later.

All that woe in the name of development. Welcome everyone, to Malaysia Maju.

*****