January – March is normally a period of long rains here in Madagascar but in the beginning of this year, things were different. It was scorching hot when we heard news about a cyclone coming in the following week. The news said ‘Make sure that you have an IC radio and enough food stock in your house because a major cyclone is going to hit Toliara!” That meant that there would be neither power nor supply of foodstuff until further notice. So, the necessary purchases were done and we waited for the cyclone. Surprisingly from the time of that announcement it rained cats and dogs, But I realized that people here longed for the rains so much that when it came they were happy. All the major roads were flooded due to heavy rainfall and one could not avoid wading through the stagnant water. Children were seen playing in the rain and the flooded roads. Rolling and splashing water on each other, others literally bathed in excitement. Thanks be to God that the cyclone that hit some parts of Toliara (our area excluded) was not of the magnitude that was earlier predicted. We were safe but there were some parts of Toliara where strong winds had blown away the roof tops of houses. According to the meteorological department, our town would have been severely hit by the cyclone but fortunately the Mozambique Channel managed to counter the situation.
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