Rain

It's raining more these days. This generally means waves of heavy showers throughout the day. Business slows down a bit as more people just opt to stay at home. The rains will increase throughout July and August, when the capital usually receives one seven day stretch of continuous, unabated rain. Everyone talks about that week.

Away from the main streets there are lots

of unpaved roads. This combined with the fact that Freetown is very hilly means there's considerable erosion each time it rains. I live on a steep dirt road with massive ruts that require constant maintenance. This happens from time to time thanks to unemployed men who live nearby. The main roads have deep drainage systems on each sides, as seen in this photo. These quickly fill up with all the eroded dirt so despite some being a meter deep, they're constantly being emptied by hand.

The rain tends to be heaviest at night. Imagine the hardest rain you can think of, with water just dumping from the sky. Then double it. That's what it's like when it rains hard here at night. Additionally there's more lightening than I'm used to, with the sky sometimes pulsing like a strobe light for several seconds. But the rain cools things off and despite the thunder it can be a calming sound to fall asleep to.