I bless the crazy hailstorms up in Uganda

A Skype meeting for our project was interrupted today by what sounded like the loudest rainstorm I had ever heard. Then I looked outside, and saw this:

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A hailstorm in Africa – add that to the list of things I never expected to see. Rain on the iron-sheet roofing common in nicer homes in Lira can be pretty loud, but hailstones are completely deafening. Not only couldn’t we hear the Skype call (and in any case the storm quickly knocked out the power and internet), but I could barely hear people who were right in front of me. We got a nice accumulation of hail, too:

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I also learned my new favorite home remedy: the Mango Tree employees at the office told me that if a kid wets the bed, eating hailstones will cure them. Therefore, I was told, all kids around here are forced to eat hail when it comes down during a storm. And indeed, when I stepped outside the gate, I saw a bunch of kids rushing around gathering the ice off the ground.

I even ate a couple of the least dirty ones myself. Honestly? Not too bad.

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