Clouds

Sorry for the break in posting. To make up a bit, check out the blog of Gina Chavez (I have a link in the right sidebar). She is one of the new volunteers here (Jodi is the other) and she has a video camera, so has posted some videos of the school to her blog. And she shows the ¨pila,¨ the place where we wash our clothes! Very exciting stuff. ;p

I have always had a fascination with clouds. Especially big cumulus clouds. El Salvador has the best clouds. All around the mountains (which I can see from my room) the clouds pile up in immense, soft, towering pillars that dwarf the mountains below them. My theory is this: the clouds were cruising along single file through the sky. Because of the lack of restrictions in their travel, none of them paid much attention to the clouds around them or where they were going. A kind of road hypnosis of the sky. Suddenly, one of them crashes into this invisible wall of air created by the sudden height differentiation of the mountains, the rest don´t notice before it is too late and they all crash into the cloud in front of them, the clouds billowing up higher and higher at each crash!

And then there are the storm clouds. As if storms alone weren´t cool enough, these storms know how to make an entrance! First, the purple, gray clouds appear and grow in the distance. As they plod across the sky the front runners are lit from behind by lighting flaring deep inside the tumultuous core. Working up a frenzy in their approach, branching lightning jumps outside the thick clouds, reaching to escape, only to be drawn back again by the covetous cumulus.
After that the rain starts in a torrent and I have to close the windows, so I can´t see anything. Which isn´t a big deal since the clouds are indistinct after that point anyway.

Yeah, I like clouds.