The rainmaker

When I moved from Krommenie to Wormerveer, I soon discovered at the Wormerveer market a stall belonging to a gentleman who went to Indonesia for several weeks every year to shop for his trade.

Every week I would visit him to buy masks, Buddhas, statues, wall hangings and other tropical accessories for my new home.

In no time, my whole house was full of oriental trinkets including a bamboo rainmaker.

This rainmaker consisted of a bamboo tube containing grains of rice. When you held the tube upside down, the rice grains slid along the small nails inside the tube from top to bottom making a sound like it was raining.

The rainmaker works!

"What's that?" asked my five-year-old daughter Demi when I had picked her up from school that afternoon.

'That's a rainmaker'.

'Can you really make rain with that?'

'Yes indeed!'

'Do then?'

Secretly, I moved the rainmaker back and forth with the grains of rice clattering from top to bottom several times.

To add to the excitement of it all, I also made up a ' magic spell' to go with it.

' Rain, rain, will I meet you today!

Demi looked at me open-mouthed.

Although she was momentarily disappointed that the rain did not fall straight away with buckets of rain, she quickly forgot about the rain ritual and went off to play with our new kitten.

That night - coincidentally - when it started raining from the sky she ran to me excitedly.

' Mum! The rainmaker is working!'

I nodded.

'Yes dear, it works!'

'Do you want to make rain tomorrow too?'

'Yeah sure, if you want I'll make rain for you.'

The next morning before I took her to school, she stood with her jacket on moving the rainmaker back and forth while I cast the now familiar spell.

'Rain, rain, am I meeting you today?'

Since I had heard on the weather report that there was a high chance of precipitation, I was hopeful that the rainmaker would do his job again that day.

Indeed, that morning it erupted again. Short but fierce. A beautiful autumn shower to sustain Demi's faith in the rainmaker for a while longer.

When I picked her up from school that afternoon, she came running right back at me.

' Mum! We couldn't play outside today because it was raining!'

'I saw it dear.

'I told teacher.'

'What did you say?'

'My mother did that. Who has a rainmaker.'

🙈