Taking shelter from the rain

The weather has gone mad here!
Last night torrential rain, very strong winds, intense thunder and fork lightning!
I was woken at 3am, by what I thought was someone trying to get in to my balcony door, but the winds were causing it to rattle so very strongly. The electricity went off there and then and has only just come back on in the last half hour. Now we have no water :-) (Fake smile!)

Yesterday I met a cycling postman from Sheffield. He wants to explore the West Bank on his bike and away from the tourism trail.
This morning at 9am, we were out amongst the dark skies and still, humid air, heading for the Qorna souk.

I happily shopped for tomatoes, cucumber etc, while he repeatedly said 'Amazing' he is completely blown away by the contrast in cultures!

So I took him out and about off the beaten track. As we headed towards the Qorna Mountain, the skies became low, the lightning started, the rains descended and just kept coming and coming. The cycling postman is obviously very accustomed to such weather and embraced it, standing outside, arms stretched shouting 'I can't believe it's raining in Luxor!' Me? I ran to Mohameds in search of shai (Tea) and shelter from the cold bullet like rain. A crowd had gathered, as hundreds of workers were finishing their shift on the Mountain. A large programme has started to clear the scarring from the houses that were demolished over the last 6 years.

Mohamed still lives on the Mountain alone, with just his donkeys. I always wondered how he had managed to stay until now, when all of the other people had relocated to the new village, since 4 years now.
People with families, were given new houses, but if you were a single man, you were given land. Mohamed is not married and therefore has a piece of land, but cannot afford to build. So he stays on his beloved Mountain.

If you look carefully, you can see his rain drop splattered shoes and clothes. It has caused so much excitement here and it is still raining!