I was sad to hear that my last blog was depressing to some people. That's not good. Of course I'm homesick, it's not like I'm living in Paris or something, where it would just be a matter of missing friends and family. But I'm living in a completely different culture, and there are few things here that are like home, so I miss the environment of home as well as the people. It's not easy sticking out all the time, especially when you've been here a year and feel as though you should be able to blend in a bit (impossible).
So it's been hot season. It was incredible. The heat was incredible that is. It was regularly over 120 degrees (in the shade where my thermometer is). Oh and by thermometer I mean oven thermometer because that's all I had, and regular thermometers sent from home just break in this heat. In the sun it was about 140 degrees. The worst part is that it does not get cooler at night. It just stays the same. I couldn't even turn my computer on- it would be burning to the touch. Probably not a good sign. So what did I do? I would go into the shower with my clothes on then go to bed. Hopefully, if the power was working, I would have a fan. Between this and the soaking wet clothes, I would sleep for about 2 hours. Since its dry heat, it wasn't too sweaty, except for anything touching you. So when I would sit in a chair for instance, my entire back would be drenched in sweat. I got up to 3 showers a day. I drank over 7 liters of water a day. I would be consumed with thirst after only a half hour or so. Sometimes if I went a while without drinking, it became the only thing I could concentrate on until I got to somewhere with drinks. You get very irritable in this heat. I felt bad for my students sometimes, because I definitely had less patience in class. But pretty much everyone was snapping at each other. I think I did bargain for better prices at the market though, because I was just so irritable and wouldn't accept a high price. That's also how I ended up with 2 new dresses and a pair of custom made leather shoes with pointy toes. At night, I would be sweating while sleeping, and have to wake up to drink. Often, when I was very tired, I would start to dream about a cold, icy bucket of beverages. All different flavors, with the condensation trickling down the bottles. Then I would wake up and know I was dehydrated.
A couple days ago we had our first storm in 6 months. It started off with gray clouds overhead. It was very humid. Then it got very windy. The mountains looked majestic with the clouds surrounding them, making the peaks difficult to see, and the dust swirling all around the base. After a few minutes of a wind/ dust storm, it drizzled for about 10 minutes. But since then the heat has not come back (its staying around 90 or 100) and it is once again bearable.
