You’ve probably heard that word before. “Eye of the Day”, in Bahasa Indonesia, the language here, it’s quite the understatement. I’ve been here for 10 months now, and guess how many times it has rained? . . . 8 . . . No, that’s not a drenching, all day, can’t go outside and play, wet t-shirt contest, this sucks, type of rainy day. That’s only a couple of hours out of 8 days in over 300 total days.

Before coming here, I was all about the sun; absolutely loved it. I still do – but how can an island in the middle of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, not get drenched with months of monsoons? Indonesia has 2 seasons. Wet and dry. That’s it. Since we’re almost right on the equator, the sun rises at 6 am, and sets at 6 pm. Locals can’t believe when I tell them that at home, in July, the sun doesn’t set until like almost 10 pm. In the States, I always glimpsed at the Weather Channel to see what the day would be like, sun, rain, snow, fog, sleet, freezing rain, thunderstorms, etc. There’s no need whatsoever for a Weather Channel here. Everyday is sunny and around 88 – 91 degrees (32-34 C). Even when I stumble out of bed at 3 am to grab some water, I leave the comfort of my permanently air-conditioned bedroom, to hit the wall of humid heat in the hallway that’s at least 20 degrees warmer.

I was looking on the ‘net at the weather where my family is today, this is what I found.

My mom is in Cape Town, S. Africa: Chance of rain, 65 degrees.
My brother and dad in America: Sunny, 77 degrees.
My sister in Atlanta: Chance of thunderstorms, 95 degrees.
Jakarta? You guessed it! Sunny, 91 degrees.

See what I mean? V A R I E T Y. It’s starting to wear on me if you can’t tell. I still don’t miss the snow, but damn a chill in the air would be nice. I guess last year, there were torrential rains during the rainy season that caused massive flooding, forcing people to float on rafts made by the unemployed locals, and pay around $40 to float to the market. The sewage canal mixed with the rainwater and deposited the sludge into people’s living rooms…

Ok, maybe I should be thankful once again for the ever-present Matahari.