Damn, It's Cold Here!

I wouldn’t have thought that the words cold and Africa would ever go together, but I was wrong. I just left the library, where I was working on my Oshiwambo while ‘monitoring study hall,’ and I’m wearing jeans, a t-shirt, a sweater, a fleece jacket and a hat. Mind you, it’s only 8pm, so the weather will get colder yet through the night.

The last few days, the weather has definitely taken a turn to the cool side. The temperature hasn’t dropped below freezing, but at night it can get down as low as about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. That may not sound like much to you Chicagoans and New Yorkers who suffer through winters where temperatures regular dive to the teens. However, you have one advantage that we in Namibia do not have: heat in your homes. Here, none of the buildings on the mission have any sort of heat whatsoever. None in my dorm, none in the dining hall, and none in the classrooms. The buildings retain a little more heat than the outside air, so they are usually 5-10 degrees warmer. Still, it can be pretty freakin’ cold.

Watching people deal with the cold is interesting. My favorite nun, Sister Khotaram, wears a sleeveless black jacket over her habit, giving her a military look. Sister Francis, the slightest of the nuns, wears a jacket, gloves, and a humongous white scarf wrapped around her head. It looks like a cross between a turban and the gauze bandage that people wrap around the top of their head and their chin to hold a hot water bottle in place. This morning, I had to bang my hands together for a few minutes before I could start marking papers.


The kids have it worse than all the staff, however. The principal won’t allow them to wear anything besides their school uniform, which consists of a short-sleeve button-down shirt and a very thin sweater. The students made a formal request at assembly on Monday to be allowed to wear jackets over their uniforms, and he turned them down flat. One student, who has a note from her doctor, is allowed to wear a coat. I’m considering asking one of the doctors in town to sign notes for ALL the kids and then see what the principal does. Ha ha ha!

By the way, I know that some of my dearest friends are now thinking, “Aha! Let’s send Josh a hat/sweater/long underwear.” Thank you very much, but really it’s not necessary. They sell all the warm clothes I need here. Besides, by the time it actually arrived, it would be hot again! Thanks for the thought, however! Cheers, and enjoy the warmth of the northern hemisphere.