Similar to MN, the weather is the most common topic of conversation here. A common greeting in the local language is “How are you?” “I’m fine, except for the heat.” This year the hot season has arrived early, much to everyone’s dismay.
When I got in our car today at about 11: 15 AM to pick Jane up from school, the temperature inside the car was 131 degrees. I turned on the a/c and by the time I got to Jane’s school to pick her up, the temp. had dropped to 122 degrees. Then the car started overheating, and I had to turn off the a/c and open the windows. When we got home, Jane and I were really hot. I was kind of concerned about Jane because her face was drenched in sweat, so I got her something to drink, put her in the living room, and turned on the a/c, which we normally use sparingly during the day because it’s pretty expensive to run. After about 10 minutes, the power went out, so Joe fired up the generator [the generator can not run the a/c's]. After about 2 minutes, the generator ran out of gas.…
When I told this story to a co-worker he was laughing hysterically because he knows what it’s like here when one thing leads to another. The power goes out and you’re drenched in sweat because the fans aren’t running and you want to take a shower, but the water doesn’t run when the power is out, and on and on.
It’s not like we’re alone in this… the whole country suffers during the hot season and we have the easiest of most of them with a car, generator, and air conditioning. But when, like today, our car and a/c and generator fail us, we find ourselves with the majority of the people here and it’s not a whole lot of fun. -Roxy
2 comments:
Roxy, I love your Blog! It is so fun to hear what is happening in your lives. I can't believe what it is like to live in a place like that. I love sharing it with my class to give them a global perspective.
Michael
I couldn't help laughing when I read this post. It brings back so many memories. I think its funny how some things never change in Africa.
Post a Comment