The heat is creeping in

2/10/08
The heat is creeping in! It started a week ago exactly. At first we all just thought "oh today is a hot day, " with the expectation that the next day would be cool again. Alas, that is not how it works. The heat comes on a little more each day. This week it was 82 in the shade at 10:00 AM. Soon it will be too warm in my hut at night and I'll move back outside, where surely sleep will evade me (noise+heat=recipe for insomnia!) Or, maybe not. Maybe the next two years will be Niger's most temperate!
I am delighted to report that at this junction in time, I am healthy, and even though the heat is tiring, I have returned to myself again. It took awhile to recover from my double-whammy sicknesses. It hit me yesterday that I finally understand why so much emphasis is placed on health and wellness in the daily greetings of this country. The long string of greetings that we run through with everyone is mostly an oratory on one's health and the health of one's family. I understand now that it's not at all a coincidence, but that people here ask about health because it's really IMPORTANT. And it's much harder to recover from anything.