The sun is hot.
The air is wet.
The rains are heavy.
The flies are many.
The heat rash is starting.
Ugh. My body is covered in heat rash. Baby powder doesn’t do much and Gold Bond is missing from my life. I had no idea how bad it would get during rainy season but man, it is BAD. My skin constantly feels prickly and 15 seconds after I take a refreshing bucket bath, I am itchy and prickly again. ARGH!
To add to the fun, if I go outside to escape the stifling heat of my house, the mosquitoes attack me like a bumster asking for my number. But unlike the bumsters, the mosquitoes are quite successful in their pursuit of my flesh. The microbial-sized harbingers of malaria are everywhere this time of year. I doubt it has anything to do with the giant lakes of standing water populated by families of feces as a result of poor drainage systems. Am I right or what? (looks around for affirmation)
And the flies. Oh the flies! It’s like they all decided that Gambia was the new Hamptons and they just HAD to come here and see what it was like. But instead of paying $36 for a lobster roll, they got to feast on rotting mangoes and pit latrine feces. It ain’t pretty especially when umm…you’re trying to use aforementioned latrine. Moving on.
So the flies suck. The mosquitoes suck. The heat rash is whackness personified to the 38th degree. Isn’t there anything good about rainy season? Why funny you ask!
The fields have turned from barren dust bowls to dewy emerald fields that even a leprechaun would be proud to hide his pot o’gold in! Lush green grass has sprouted up and awoken the weeds to join them. Vegetable gardens are ripe with the fruits of all that the rains have bestowed upon them. Goats are humping each other in the streets just raring to reproduce.
And the rain. I can put my empty buckets under the roof to catch all the water (thus reducing trips to the water tap) to wash my clothes. Also, it is amazing to just sit under the porch and read a book as the skies open up and let down torrents of rain. No one goes anywhere or does anything. We all just watch. And for a short time, the world, seemingly at its most violent outrage, is suddenly peaceful.
Okay. Rainy reason does kind of rock.
Sigh - insects. The sand flies here are pretty bad. I'm inside my "comfy" desert home with a fan and a wet sheet (have to use the two in combination, otherwise they are both impossibly hot), and luckily, I've screened the windows to protect from the general flies. ...but OH, the sand flies! They fit through the smallest screen and find the juiciest bits of flesh to bite. They seem to especially delight in fingers, toes, and the crook of your elbow or knee. I think they know that's the worst place to scratch.
ReplyDeleteIn short, I'm with you, my African sista ;-)