Real hot.
How hot?
“Hotter than snake shit on the desert floor”, my friend used to say.
More like being inside a pizza oven when the crust is burning.
We are in the tongue-lolling dog days of Lao summer, which comes with startling speed right at the tail end of Lao winter (Lao spring? No existe, amigo!). North Americans and Europeans would be surprised to learn that March and April are the hottest months in these tropical regions around 10-15 degrees latitude. We have had several weeks of flirtation with the 100 degree Fahrenheit mark and have recently crashed straight through it. Sunday, it was 103 with a heat index of 113. A sudden and violent thunder storm that night had me thinking that maybe the temperatures were going to slacken…it was back to 100 on Monday - but with more humidity!
We have lived in the tropics before and I normally tolerate it quite well, but this place is really freakin’ hot. I taught my normal Tuesday class this morning at 8:00 AM. I was boiling with sweat at the outset, mopping my face like Louis Armstrong, and by 8:15 had soaked my t-shirt, short-sleeve shirt, and trousers all the way through. My students, worried about me, went and fetched me ice water. Bless ‘em.
I don’t think I mentioned the case of prickly heat I came down with last September when it was only 95 degrees with 80% humidity (Lao autumn!). Yes, folks. Prickly heat is real, and it sucks wildly. Having learned my lesson, I never go anywhere without my umbrella, and I take at least two showers a day (unfortunately, “cold” water this time of year, you could make Cup o’ Soup with). Thank God we have air-conditioners and fans in every room of the house.
Now if we could only keep the electricity from going out every day! Yikes!
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