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| Hospital Vozandes del Oriente - Shell, Pastaza, Ecuador |
I fell asleep last night to the sound of rain on the roof, trickling through the gutters, and to the smell of earth made fresh. The air blew across my face from the open window and I was transported back in time. Ecuador has been on my mind a little more recently as our youngest daughter and her husband are there now, visiting the land of her birth.
Digging through old photos I found this aerial shot of the "new" hospital where she was born and where, a few years later, my husband served as administrator. I look at the photo with eyes of love that prickle with tears at the memories engendered. Yet now that it's been eleven years since I've seen this place, my eyes can also see the details that separate this photo from most of my reader's realities. I see a place where so many, many people came for healing. This building holds tales that would break your heart, and tales of triumph and joy. I wonder what you see - a strange landscape, a rusty roof, muddy streets.
All this from listening to rain in the night. What memories does rain trigger for you?
This is an interesting post. A warm summer rain might remind me of the little camp we stayed in for a week on a farm in the country when we were kids. The camp had a hand pump in a sink that emptied outdoors, an outhouse, a leaky steel roof, bats, mice and a snake under the porch. And lots of flies and mosquitos. I don't know how our mother put up with it but she loved roughing it. We got to know the farm kids, the cows, pigs and chickens. I can still hear the rain on the roof though and smell the musty air on a hot summer afternoon. Sweet memories. Thanks for reminding me. Pam
ReplyDeleteVery different ones than yours, of course. I also fell asleep to rain on the roof last night with a breeze blowing in. At first, I was going to crank up the AC because it was muggy and stuffy upstairs, but then decided to just open the window wider and enjoy the sound of the rain. I dreamed crazy dreams about a neighbor mowing my lawn and my getting too used to it.
ReplyDeleteYou wonder what your readers might think of this hospital. I thought that it was not a place that would inspire confidence nor is it a place where I would like to have a baby. Now, truth to tell, I've not seen an aerial view of either hospital where my children were born. Maybe those roofs are also rusty. =D
I think that you have fond feelings for Ecuador and the life that you lived there. It has to be more than the hospital.
I adore summer, but I love rain too. I always want summer to go on and on - but the rains always come, eventually. I remember the days when my dad was a commercial fisherman in Alaska and we'd sleep on the boat. The soft whispering sound of rain hitting the ocean water was soothing and one of my favorite memories.
ReplyDeleteMy, that hospital reminds me of one in Bonaire, where my husband spent a week with an infection.
ReplyDeleteAs for rain on the roof, it takes me back to my childhood years when I not only heard the rain on the roof, but water flowing into our cistern which was beneath my room. I do love the smell of rain, and also like to watch a fierce thunderstorm, from a safe place of course.
I enjoyed that rain, too. Bonus is that all my vegetation got watered naturally! Oh boy...hubby is really one of those who you can't keep down! I'm glad he got better at home.
ReplyDeleteWhen the rain falls straight down and we don't have to worry about it blowing in, I love to open all the windows. The sound of rain falling and trickling takes me back to Venezuela where I lived and worked for four months a very long time ago. Because many houses had shutters, but not actual glass windows, you'd hear the outdoors so very near. I loved it.
ReplyDeleteOf course with all that 'openness' little iguanas would crawl around the ceilings, which I eventually grew not to mind either. :)
And the photo reminds me of Venezuela, so it feels 'home-ish' to see.
Thanks for the memory jog!
We were happy for the rain overnight...and today. Everything will soon be green again! And you are right...things always smell so fresh after a good summer rain. Now...I'm ready for sunshine again!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your memories triggered by the rain from long ago. Most interesting.
Your memories unfurled so intricately -- a lovely post and as I comment here, the rain has just begun lashing at our skylight. I'm off to sit with memories myself now . . . thanks!
ReplyDeleteMemories of camping under an ancient canvas tent with my 4 siblings while my parents kept saying "don't touch the tent!"
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing yours with us. Have a great week.
I, too, love a rainy night. There is something so peaceful about being tucked inside while listening to a gentle rain. Thank you for sharing your memories...what a beautiful post.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure.......... but often rain calls to mind hurricanes and tropical storms for me..... living on the Gulf of Mexico since 1962. But I do love a rainy night!!! Shelter from the storm is always good!
ReplyDeleteI forgot......... was going to tell you that one of my son's very best friends from college is from Ecuador. Great, great guy. We all love him. He returned to Ecuador to his family's business. Met his parents as well..... seem like a very nice family.
ReplyDeleteI too, love a rainy night, especially one that yields to a fresh, sunny morning where everything smells damp and the air is crisp. I was so into your story that I had to really think to bring myself back.....I guess I remember a night in our "goat barn" when I was a young 4Her. The sweet, dusty smell...and the feel of the flannel lining my sleeping bag. I can't remember why I spent the night there...sick goat, I presume, or maybe just a doe hours from kidding. (No, I'm not kidding!) The slanted roof was a green corrugated fiberglass. It let some light in, some air at the eaves, and seemed to amplify the sound of raindrops, acorns, and especially, squirrels skittering over it.
ReplyDeleteYour memories are poignant and made me want to hear more.
ReplyDeleteThe rain doesn't particularly have a specific memory for me.
It just reminds me that it is time to curl up in a comfy quilt,
sit by the fire, and read/nap. Or on the other hand, put on the
rubber boots and stomp through the puddles.
My husband's family were missionaries in Senegal, West Africa. This kind of scene is not shocking to me or troubling, it shows me that the people in that area of Ecuador were blessed to have medical care in the form of a hospital!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your memories!
Deanna