Mango Heat and a Surprise

(A year ago, I was trying to learn about Chad, and about what I would be doing during my SALT term, I read Kelsey’s blog (SALTer 2013-2014) entitled ‘Mango heat’ and I wanted to honour that great title today.)

Since I arrived at the end of August, the question most asked by people is how is the heat? When I reply (sometimes with ‘it’s ok’, and sometimes with ‘it’s pretty hot’), their response is always wait for the hot season which different people told me was anywhere from February to May. I made it through February no problem, and I thought that if this was as hot as it would be I would be just fine. Then mid-way through March, temperatures began to climb, and climb until most days it reach in the low 40’s.

Now this is very hot, but in Canada we have something called air conditioning or at the very least fans. But when there is little electricity, you are cooking over a charcoal fire, and your room is like a sauna- as is the case here in Chad, life becomes difficult. We do manage by sleeping outside, trying to stay in the shade, and when possible having a nap mid-day.

The good news about the hot season is the mangoes! I love mangoes and it has been a real treat to be able to buy 3 mangoes for the equivalent of 20 cents! I am happy to be able to eat mangoes on a regular basis.

Surprise!

It has been a long time since I have had rain. I remember when there were massive puddles on the roads which made it almost impossible to get from place to place but that seems like a very long time ago. In the last couple days, there have been more clouds that have been dark. On March 25^th, there were multiple people who looked at these clouds and said that it was going to rain. I did not believe them because I had heard that it may rain a couple times in May but the rainy season does not really start until June. I replied that if it rained I would dance.

We set up our mats and mosquito nets outside and we fell asleep. At 2:30am, we all awoke to the surprise of RAIN!  In reality it was a sprinkle but nevertheless, we took down our mosquito nets, and put away our mats. At 2:30 in the morning everyone was pretty tired, but I got my 5-year brother Junior and we did a little tired dance.