Animals Marching in Pairs

After two days without rain, the skies opened up this afternoon with a hard, cleansing rain. It will continue for a few hours until ditches rise to street level, spontaneous arc-building breaks out over the city, and traffic slows... no, actually, drivers don't really adjust their speed or direction to take rain-slickened roadways into account. 

At its most comical, I have to find a picture of a car whose driver couldn't see the flooded ditch running alongside the road. The two right tires are wedged into the ditch, leaving the chassis perched on the sharp, unforgiving curb. 

At its luckiest, we were driving on the main highway between Douala and Yaounde when a car hydroplaned, swerved out control, and slammed entirely into a ditch. I resolve to buy Mercedes next life, because the passengers - tossed around like rag dolls inside, without even a hint of seat belt use, all staggered away from the totaled car. 

At its worst, the traffic accidents are grisly. Eighteen died in a single incident that was overshadowed by a train wreck in Yaounde the same day that claimed half a dozen other lives. 

In so many ways, when it rains, it pours.