Wildfire

Shortly after breakfast this morning I heard what sounded like loud wind heading our way.
This didn't bother me that much as the wind really has been unbelievable lately. It has been blowing through in unexpected gusts, blasting around the side of the mountain like it is running for its life, knocking chairs and kitchen ware off of our porch in it's hurry to get somewhere further away than here. The walls and floor of our tent bulge all around us then buckle violently back out in a way that makes me too nervous to sleep. (Last night I asked Bryan, "Why does this wind scare me so badly?" He answered "Because our house is made out of fabric.")
But the wind never hit our tent this morning. I looked out in the direction of the noise and saw a wave of dark black smoke and realized what I was hearing was fire. Lots and lots of fire. We watched it for a while hoping to see it die down but within half an hour a tsunami of orange flames that would occasionally burst as high as thirty feet in the air was rolling towards our home. Our neighbors (who lost their entire compound to fire last year) had a team of guys out starting smaller fires to try and head the wildfire off. Bryan lit a handful of grass on our camp stove and ran out to join them. I ran inside and started packing go-bags just in case - passports, laptops, my bible and family photos (and if you must know, a little bit of make-up and a favorite bra. In this part of the world that loss would hurt.) The black sky was full of ash and dozens of hawks trying to catch small animals fleeing the heat. It looked and sounded and smelled so awful.
Amazingly, the fire seemed to die down almost as dramatically as it started. Other than the singed hair on Bryan's hands and arms, we were ultimately untouched. The afternoon is now completely still and quiet, and other than the crispy blackness right outside our gate, you wouldn't have even known the fire was here only hours ago.
I expect there will be a time that we will loose things to fire. It seems to just be a part of life here. But this morning I just kept thinking, "Not yet. Please not yet." Some days this place just feels insane! Days are blisteringly hot and dusty while nights can feel freezing. The shockingly intense rain and thunder have been replaced with equally amazing wind and fire. All of it sweeps in so unexpectedly. And all of it seems so extreme. All you can do is pack up your underwear and pray.
And as scary as it can sometimes be, I have to admit, I kinda like it.