The rain is beating down so hard the noise drowns out all other sound. Down below preparations are going on for opening the market just like every morning; trucks of all sizes coming and going, boxes of fruit and vegetables being loaded or offloaded, men shouting to each other over the droning of engines. Normally the sounds from all this would float up to me where I stand but this night I hear none of it, nothing but the whoosh of the water. On a clear night you could see far from here, the lights of apartments on the other side of the city and behind them the faint outline of distant mountains against the pre dawn sky, but tonight the pouring rain obscures everything, making the world seem small. It’s like being in a silent bubble, surrounded by a curtain of water.