A soggy start to the day...

So this morning I got out of bed and Joe was just leaving for work...a bit late but I thought oh well, between the clocks not keeping time for some reason and Joe staying up late to fix a computer, early to work just hasn't been in the cards this week.  He said to me, "since you are up I have something to show you."  We walk into the room he uses as his office and I about wipe out and fall on the floor, because the floor was covered in water!  Great, my relaxing day at home was not to be.

The rainy season is upon us here in Lagos and up until last night we had not had any trouble with water getting into the apartment...people always seemed surprised that we hadn't had any trouble.  And now I understand their confusion!  Three rooms had water on the floor this morning.  One room was pretty much "flooded" with about a 1/4" covering the room.  Luckily we didn't lose anything other than cardboard boxes we had been saving from the move. 

I set about removing items from the waterlogged areas so I could start mopping up the water.  A Shopvac would have been really handy this morning!  Our driver called around 9am to say that he was stuck in a lot of traffic and wouldn't make it back to the apartment until 10:30, fine I said, not a problem.

I continue my clean up process and Godwin arrives back from taking Joe to the office.  He laughs at me because I am wearing my Wellies inside.  I smile and show him all of the water in the next room.  He then realizes what I am dealing with and springs into action!  He asks if I have contacted the Building Manager, I haven't.  So he goes off to take away some soggy cardboard and tell the Building Manager what is going on in our flat.

The next thing I know there are 5 people here to help.  One is evaluating the source of the water infiltration, 2 are mopping up the water...or pushing it into the floor drain in the bathroom, and 2 more are caulking around the windows suspected of leaking.  Godwin appears to be supervising all of them.  So what would have taken me another 2 hours to clean up is done in about 30 minutes.  It's almost like they have done this before. ;)  The floors are all dry now and the walls and curtains affected are drying out too.

I haven't put things back into the worst of the rooms just yet...I'll wait and see what happens the next time it rains.  I shouldn't have to wait very long...and I have a feeling this is not our last "flood".

So I wasn't so happy this morning to wake up to the mess we had with the water.  However, a little perspective is always in order.  Joe told me that Godwin's house was mostly flooded the last couple of days.  There has been a lot more rain to the north of here where his family lives.  And he doesn't have a proper roof on his house.  He has been saving money to pay to have it installed and the local fees associated with it.  But his house is another story for another day.