Water + Cockroaches

Although my Bangladeshi co-workers insist that the rainy season has not yet begun...it's been raining pretty much every day for the last week in Dhaka. Yesterday there was a torrential downpour of rain (2-3 minutes and you were soaked) - traffic pretty much was at a standstill...and then the roads flooded because the rain didn't stop after 30 minutes like it usually does.

Water was up to the height of the sidewalks and many of the middle dividers on the streets. Compact cars were just barely able to slosh through most parts of the main Gulshan Avenue. In fact, I believe that several motorcycles and CNGs had stalled because of the water and there were a couple abandoned on the side of the road.

The most amazing thing is that by the next morning - most of the roads were dry and you wouldn't have known that there was flooding on the road unless you were there. Apparently the water drains into the various lakes around town and the rivers. The flooding didn't used to be so bad, but the city is growing and the lake has been filled in (with garbage and dirt) to make room to build more apartment buildings. Because the lake is smaller - there's less area for the water to overflow into and the city tends to flood a lot more quickly than it used to.

The worst thing is that sometimes the water leaks from the roof (where the main water tanks for the buildings are stored) down the pipes for the water heaters and we get leaks inside our apartments. My flatmate's room flooded a few days ago and it was a mess. The water was leaking from the cracks around the electric outlets!! (I hear that's a common problem here.)

Unfortunately - when the inside of the walls get damp and don't get a chance to dry out with the humidity...we get cockroaches. UGH! I killed THREE today (they come out after midnite) and I haven't seen any roaches for the last month! =(