Experiencing the Ninth Circle of Hell

I’m back!!! I bet you thought I had disappeared off the face of the planet. That, or else fell into my latrine. I’ve been pretty lazy about updating my blog and I was also on vacation for two months in Americaland. Needless to say, blogging kind of took a back a seat to me stuffing my face with food and watching movies non-stop back Stateside. Don’t worry, I plan to write the equivalent of a dissertation to explain all that has happened in the last four months. Hmm…I think I shall start off talking about hot season. When hot season arrives, one thinks that they have entered the ninth circle of hell (reference to Dante’s work for those of you who are not familiar). As I mentioned in an earlier blog that hot season began early this year. I am talking 115/120 near me and upwards of 130 sometimes up north. Some days, I thought I would be okay if I just sat under my hanger all day and tried not to move. Yeah, that really doesn’t help—my thermometer under the shade would be like 105/110. My thermometer goes up to 120 degrees but every time I would look at it, it would be past the 120 mark. After I while I stopped looking at my thermometer; my ESP told me where the mark would be. Some where during the middle of hot season there was a day where I felt sick and nauseous all day. The whole day I just laid under my hanger all day and refused to leave. However, I knew I had to leave around 2:45 because I had a health lesson at the primary school at 3:00. So I mustered up enough energy to dress in more appropriately clothes (I was in a tank top at short shorts at the time).Given the choice, I would gladly have gone naked. Maybe even shaved my head but let’s not get crazy here. Anyhow I set off to the school and start throwing up on the side of the road. I now have a temporary aversion to cabbage and peanut butter (the supper from the night before). I get to the school looking awful and normally all the health agents and teachers like to tease me about how “cold” it is. So upon arriving to the school, the director of the school makes a joke and says something to the effect of how it was cold that day. I respond, “Not a good time to make a joke. I am sick, hot, and just threw up along the side of the road. If I could muster up enough energy I would hit you. But I do not have enough energy so consider yourself lucky.” He just starts to laugh so much he has trouble breathing and says he bets this is nothing like America. And I am thinking to myself, “You think?!!” Hot season, like transport, is so awful that you just have to suck it up and think of it as amusing. You know everyone is suffering and that, no, you will hopefully not die of heat stroke. Sometimes, volunteers will text at 3 AM stating that it is 100/105 degrees in the house, that they can’t sleep, and they think they may die. When I sleep in my bed, I wake up with wet hair that makes it seem like I just took a shower and a silhouette of my body on the bed sheets. These days during rainy season, right after it has rained and it is chilly, I think to myself, “Relish this moment. Relish this moment.” Ahhhhh…Cest la vie