cyclone season

A cyclone (hurricane) hit southeastern India in early December . . . my first cyclone since living in the Orphanage started late on a Tuesday night and didn't conclude until Thursday night.  Sheets of rain and significant flooding.  I felt like I needed to build an Ark - I've never seen so much rain.  Water was everywhere.  The house was like a massive Slip 'N Slide - everything was wet.  Even the things that were supposedly dry were wet.  Blankets, towels, clothes in my bag - even a package of mints, enclosed in their wrapper and dry on my shelf, completely dissolved.  Bizarre.  I've never witnessed such saturation.  The Children are soaked - wet hair and clothes around the clock.  And everything smells like urine.  Momma, I feel like this is my payback for begging you not to work in a nursing home when I was little because I hated how they smelled like urine.  Forget working in a place that smells like urine - I live in a place that is rank with the smell of urine.  And I love it.  Crazy?!  Despite the rain, I continued with my regular routine of waking the Children at 5:30 am, leading stretching and exercises (inside due to the rain), and getting the Children to brush their teeth before giving cup baths to all 51 Children in the rain.  WET!  And cold.  I feel badly for the Children.  They were shivering - no jackets, no sweaters.  Literally drenched and huddling together for warmth.  Made me feel extremely guilty to have a sweatshirt, fleece jacket and rain poncho on . . . Several of them now have colds - green snot coming from their noses and ears (this is new to me - I've never seen green snot drip from ears before), many have fevers from being in the cold rain, a handful have infected feet from walking around in water and the blisters / open wounds that resulted.  Still, the village is in worse shape.  More than 40 died - including 12 that drown in the River that runs through town.  The rice crops are shot and there is now mud everywhere.  It really felt like camping in the rain with 51 Children.  An experience!