Wed. Feb. 13, 2008

In this photo, Jim feeds his many babies cheese, and they follow his voice—begging!

Our mornings begin with roosters, from 4 a.m. onward, depending on how late THEY sleep. Our first week, one rousty fellow crowed ALL NIGHT. But no longer, he must have become dinner. If we are quite tired, we don’t hear them.

Later each morning, neighbors wash their metal pots, beginning about 6:15 a.m., so we know it’s time to awaken. Gary’s temperature and humidity gauge tells me most mornings are 77 degrees and 72 % humidity, which now feels normal. If there is a mist or morning clouds, it may get as cool as 68-70 at night, when we use TWO sheets! On a few days, humidity was 45% and 50%, but it rose later.

Yesterday, however, there was no cloud cover, and by 8 a.m. it felt 100 degrees. That is when I rush between home and work and burrow behind curtains like a groundhog, with our big Wycliffe Assoc. fan on high.

We do wear sunscreen if we’ll be in the sun, especially midday. The malaria prophylaxis we take daily has a side-effect that IF we should burn, we will blister. So as a red-head, I’m careful.

A friend implied we were not “suffering for Jesus” enough, from the photo of our nice apartment building. So here is a cabana we’ll pretend is our house instead—until the rainy season.

It has rained twice, which is totally unusual for Jan. or Feb. And of course, the second time, this past Friday, it absolutely DELUGED, 20 minutes after my laundry went up on the line, providing a second rinse?