Heading north for the "winter"

From a previous entry on this blog, you know that I spent the last few days in the extreme northwestern part of Kenya visiting Kakuma Refugee Camp and other Lutheran World Federation projects in the country’s Turkana District. Because Kenya straddles the equator, to get there, I crossed the equator to get from the southern part of the country, where Nairobi is, to the northern part.

So that means I went from the southern hemisphere, which is in the middle of its summer, to the northern hemisphere, where it’s winter right now. But, I tell ya, it’s anything but winter there in that bottom corner of the northern hemisphere. I know many of you are in the throes of sub-zero temperatures and snow, so I won’t tell you that, at high noon in the refugee camp, I bet the temperature was pushing 100 degrees F.

My favorite season is summer because it’s warm, and I enjoyed some of that hot weather, but being outside during the hottest part of the day was awful. Two of the mornings I was there, I was up and out seeing some projects very early in the morning, and at those times, the temperatures were cooler, and it was pleasant. At the end of the day, I was very sweaty and sticky. Rather than showering before going to bed because it was very hot inside the house, even at night (there was no air conditioning in the house I stayed in), I just waited until morning to shower. It was nice to shower when it was still cool outside, and at least there was a little bit of time – maybe an hour or so – when I was somewhat cool and clean.

So, happy winter to those of you on the other side of the equator. Back down here below that line, we’re enjoying our warm weather!