I used to write and post here on my blog more often. I suppose it was because when I first moved to Uganda, everything was new and different and I wanted to show my family and friends back home in America how life was sooooo different. Over the years, I just became accustomed to all the ways of living in an underdeveloped and very dysfunctional nation and my posts became less.
I mainly use this platform to post our year end reports for the ministry. However, on those days when things were dysfunctional BEYOND BELIEF, my only outlet for my frustration was to write. Thankfully, Samsung Notes has been my easy go to place to unleash the stress (trauma) of it all and I'd unload my thoughts on a certain day or situation. Todays post is one I'd like to share with you. February, 2024 was one of the hottest months I ever lived through anywhere on the planet. This is an account of ONE of my days living life in a 3rd world country. I have entries like this from the past 11 years and will share as I come across them in my notes.
Today felt like a 3-day-long day. I woke early and prepared myself for the day. There was still no water as they took it the day before so I used a 20 liter bottle I keep of reserve water. It's heavy to lift and pour but I washed the dishes left in the sink. My worker came at 10am and we noticed it was becoming a very windy day. Dry season comes with a lot of dust. Without water we couldn't do inside cleaning so I sent him to sweep outside and help me move some potting soil I had delivered, into an area where I wanted to start plants in containers. I sent him home early. I swept with the intentions of mopping and then resting for the day. Ha. It wouldn't be.
The wind was blowing a steady cyclone of dirt throughout the whole town and into my windows. It was 97F and there was no way I was closing up the house. A thin layer of brownish-red African soil laid across my floors. They were slippery like an ice skating rink. There was nothing I could do but let it penetrate my whole house.
At about 11:50 am power went off. Now I had no water, no power and no way to stay cool. As if the fans helped. When it's 97F on the equator during an El Nino year, the humidity is comparable to Bali, Indonesia. It's just uncomfortable for me, one because people with Lupus cannot regulate their body heat consistently. The best way to describe it is it feels like having 10-three minute fevers a day. I also have post-Covid 19 Pulmonary Fibrosis and Asthma. As soon as the fans go off I feel like I'm suffocating.
Before the power went off I had a visitor come. Its a girl we sponsor through our ministry. She got her scores from her leaving exams for S4 and in fact scored so high she got tuition assistance from the school. She wanted to talk to Stephen about the other requirements needed because school starts for S5 on march 5th. So now I had no water, no power, no air, filthy dirty floors and a visitor I really only know from brief visits over the years to sort school issues with Stephen. I am an introvert. I am very independent and have set things I like to do each day. But now I had to sit and make awkward uncomfortable small talk. For the next 4 hours. I had to make something to eat for us both. That is an African must for when visitors come, even unannounced or unplanned visitors. I had to wash the dishes, again using the heavy water bottle reserves. He finally came home and she settled her issues and left.
At this point power was still off. The wind was winding down a bit and all the dust it had picked up and hurled into my house had finally and completely settled. I swept again. This time having to reach every corner, underneath beds, and both front and back verandas. My second time in my 3-day-long day that I had to do this. I mopped every room. Moved beds and furniture to get it clean.
I feed stray cats homemade cat food, which is not easy to get in an area of the country that despises cats and I was waiting for Stephen to come from town with the ingredients. So at 5pm I cooked rice and ground beef. It was still 95F. No water, no power. But my floors weren't a brown ice skating rink anymore. I also had to think about preparing supper. I had taken out chicken breasts. So after washing dishes and pots from cooking cat food, using yet another heavy 20 liter bottle of reserve water that i had to carry from the store room and lift up onto the counter, after the whole day working and cooking already, I had to cook again. It was now getting to 6pm. Still no power, still no water. Still hot. And I had been going non-stop since 7:30am. I just finished a week of prednisone for a bad Lupus pain flare. All my pain and exhaustion was now all back. And I thought I was going to rest. Ha. No.
I prepared chicken and white sauce and pasta for supper. I fed 4 cats. Stephen offered to wash dishes. Water was slowly coming back in a trickle and after 6 and a half hours, during the hottest part of the day, they finally gave us electricity back. I turned on the fans first thing and breathed a huge breath of relief.
I had been thinking while making supper that if power stayed off all night, 1. All my food he just bought in town including meat would spoil and 2. I would surely die from the heat in our bedroom and for sure from suffocation (asthma at night is hell even with a fan on). The humidity is highest at night and the temps hover above 80F most of the night. There's no mercy during dry season in Africa. Especially in a country with a 38 year dictator who uses power and water outages intentionally to suppress the people.
As I write this at 9:30pm, I have power. I have water. I have a fan 2 feet from my face on high. I survived the 3-day-long day. Wonder what tomorrow will bring? Or not bring. Hopefully not a 20 mph sustained sandy wind. And hopefully not a power and water outage again. I'm exhausted. The predicted temperature tomorrow....98°F with 38% humidity.
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