My song Clara in the Rain is based on a real experience. A couple of years ago in the month of August, my daughter Mariana and her friend Clara (pictured above) and I participated in a summer school program in Zway, south central Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa. In a violent thunder and lightning rain storm, we had to abandon our sports day and take refuge in the camp base where we were staying. Once all 15 volunteers were safe from the torrential rains, their "fearless leader" realized he had left his rucksack in the playground. Yikes! It was going to get soaked! Well, Clara only needed that excuse to go running back in search of the missing bag. That is the story and here are the lyrics.
Run Like Clara in the Rain
Bag
left in the mission yard
Thunder, lightning, it
was raining hard
I told Irina, told
Mikel, too
They told Clara, see
what she might do
I’d like to run like
Clara in the rain
Refrain
I’d like to run like Clara in the rain
Feel such joy within my veins
Drench my clothes through and through
Run with Irina and Mikel too
I’d like to run like Clara in the rain
2”Hey,” says Clara “let’s have a little
race”
Mad dash to the playground gates
Mud tromp down a pebble lane
Make that forgotten treasure claim
I’d like to run like Clara in the rain
3 Thanks for your kindness, that
crazy spree
Muddy clothes, imagination free
I warned them but it was no use
That bag had just been their excuse
To run like Clara in the rain
Feel such
youth within their veins
So
ran Irina and Mikel
To catch
dear Clara in the rain
4 Youth is contagious, joy is just
Laughter’s a bike that will not rust
Unless you leave it in the rain
Defy all sorrow, go a little insane
When you run like Clara in the
rain
