Here comes the rain again

During the past week, the warm weather in Phnom Penh has been interrupted by gusts of wind and rain, especially in the late afternoon. I wondered why before realizing that May was over and the rainy season is upon us.

The rainy season. I remember when I first arrived in Phnom Penh three years ago, I was struck by the mild-ness of the rainy season. Compared to the tempestuous rainy season we have in the Philippines (typhoons, floods, and the rest), the rainy season here is so mild and predictable you can practically schedule your day around the rains. Usually, you get a clear morning, a humid noon and the rain between mid-afternoon to early evening. Sometimes you get rain before dawn, resulting in an overcast morning which brightens up late morning and the rain again on the afternoon. Now it's a bit erratic. Al Gore's voice begins to drift inside my head, talking about global warming.

June was a happy month for me. When I was a boy, I associated it with the opening of the schoolyear, ergo new shoes, new uniforms, new things: a bag, lunch-box, notebooks! About three weeks before school started, my mother will take me to department stores and school supply stores to shop for school stuff. Of course, I didn't have the final say as to what kind (or brand) of things I end up with (That decision-making power was bestowed upon me during high school) but that was okay. In fairness to Mama, she never refused me outright; she would ask what I liked, and if it fit her budget, she'd buy it. If it didn't she'd offer another suggestion. Besides, Mama never bought me a notebook that had movie stars on the covers, or a tacky school bag. We would buy shoes, belt, school bag, lunch box, pencil case.

For the other school supplies, she regularly went to this shop in Divisoria (Manila's bargain shopping district) where she's buy things in bulk: notebooks, writing pads, boxes of pens, glue, adhesive tapes, pencils and crayons, reams of art paper, rubber eraser, scissors, puncher, stapler and staple wire, and a small bolt of plastic cover sheet to cover my notebooks and books. I remember how I used to love the scent of these plastic cover sheets. These things were stored in a closet in our house, so that for the whole school year, I wouldn't have to worry about school supplies. No trips to the neighborhood store to buy a few pieces of bond and art paper and a tube of glue. No worries of running out of pad paper for writing. That's how organized my Mama was, is, and will, I think.

June is still a happy month, until now. The changing of the seasons usually have a buoyant effect on my feelings and emotions. I am usually excited, not frightened, by the concept of change. It is only when that change becomes all-too real that it causes my innards to knot themselves into a tight ball, and when the change looms above me like a storm-cloud, i will again feel suddenly relaxed and without an ounce of worry. 

What the heck. Give it to me. Whatever that is.