(This entry was written on June 1st.)
Had my laziness not taken over and I had written this blog entry a few days ago, it would have sounded something like this:
“Damn, it’s cold! I feel cold all the time. It’s terrible. I don’t want to get out of bed because it’s so cozy and warm and I know what awaits me outside of the blankets. I snooze for an hour, forego my morning yoga class, drag myself out of bed and run to the kitchen to put the tea on. I sit beside my small electric heater, which only gives off heat if you are sitting essentially on top of it. The tea warms me up until it’s time to put on my clothes. I strip off one item of clothing at a time, replacing it with the day’s covering as quickly as possible.
The day is no warmer, as I am stuck in an icy cold classroom with another non-functioning electric heater. I spend the entire day miserably cold to the point that I cannot feel my fingers, and then I return home to a cottage with no electricity (hence no electric heater or tea) and no hot water (hence no bath). I freeze all night long and jump into bed at 8pm, not because I am tired but because I long to be piled under blankets. I wake up the following morning and snooze for an hour, desperately trying to hold onto the warmth for just a few more precious minutes.”
I am glad I waited a few extra days to write this blog entry because now I can add the following postscript:
“Over the past few days, out of freezing desperation, I have become obsessed with the notion of being warm. I seem to have learnt a few tricks
2. Be opportunistic. Whenever possible, find sources of warmth and exploit them. This means doing school in the mornings beside the fire in the sitting room of the main house. An hour in front of the fire seems to suffice to make the classroom bearable for the rest of the day. This also means using the sun as a major source of warmth in the middle of the afternoon. One can accomplish a lot of reading (two books in four days!) when sitting outside in the middle of the yard and soak in as many hours of sunlight as possible.
2. Be opportunistic. Whenever possible, find sources of warmth and exploit them. This means doing school in the mornings beside the fire in the sitting room of the main house. An hour in front of the fire seems to suffice to make the classroom bearable for the rest of the day. This also means using the sun as a major source of warmth in the middle of the afternoon. One can accomplish a lot of reading (two books in four days!) when sitting outside in the middle of the yard and soak in as many hours of sunlight as possible.
2. Be proactive about warmth. Do not wait until you are cold to put socks on. Put them on when you are still warm. Put that sweatshirt on in the afternoon – in fact, sit with it on outside in the sun; it warms the material of the sweatshirt. Turn the electric heater on the moment you return inside from your sunbathing – don’t wait until 6pm and you’re freezing your tootsies off!
3. Consume (or be consumed by) warm liquids several times a day. This means two morning cups of tea with breakfast and further cups throughout the day as needed. Soak yourself in a hot bath for at least 30 minutes at around 5pm. And a nice, full glass of red wine at 8pm extends the evening hours a wee bit, leaving you running for your bed around 9pm rather than 8pm.
Who knew that Africa could be so cold? I certainly didn’t expect it. It feels like Nepal in the winter. I remember those days of sitting in hot water bottles placed in the bed with me, three of the thickest blankets in the world wrapped around me for 11 hours a night, only being persuaded out of bed by the thought of my first of a dozen cups of tea a day, spending days basking in the sun in parks and on rooftop restaurants to soak in the sun, and revolving my entire day’s schedule around my 4pm shower (the only time the solar panel heated the water to a pleasant temperature).
Well, the Nepal days are back, and they have taught me a lot, which I am now applying to the winter in Zimbabwe.
Because May was just Zimbabwe’s autumn. Today is the first day of winter.
