The hot season has arrived

It's getting hot - really, really hot. Topping 100°F/37°C every single day hot. I now a have a new appreciation for and deep understanding of this passage from Harper Lee's wonderful book (and one of my favorites), To Kill a Mockingbird:

                    

                     "Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony 

                     mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live 

                     oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies 

                     bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like 

                     soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum."

Just replace live oaks with palm trees and the mules and Hoover carts with waiting tuk-tuk drivers and street vendors, and you pretty much have Phnom Penh in the hot season. We try to cope with the heat by moving as little as humanly possible between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., avoiding the sun, sitting directly in front of a fan at all times, drinking water constantly, and taking numerous cold showers. Oh, and getting used to sweating a lot and all the time. And when I say all the time, I mean it: walking, sitting, sleeping, lying perfectly still, doing jumping jacks, drying yourself off after a shower, brushing your hair - constantly. Which is one reason why I have more or less completely given up wearing make-up, except for mascara, for the next few months. As far as temperature appropriate clothing is concerned, Cambodian culture doesn't really allow for wearing hot-pants and tube-tops, so we stick to wearing the lightest most breathable clothes we have. I feel bad for our cats, which regularly seem over-heat in their fur coats, sliding off of their comfy napping spots on the couch onto the tiled floor to cool down. 

The heat has also kind of killed our appetite, meaning that when we went out for lunch today, I was full after half a baguette sandwich and Philipp didn't need more than 1 1/2 instead of the usual two. We've been living off of a lot of salads and fruit, avoiding having to stand over the stove and preferring lighter dishes if we do cook. This week alone we went through three (small) watermelons, which are perfect when they've been able to get nice and cold in the freezer. 

So, to everyone who is still desperately looking forward to the first signs of spring, or is already enjoying them, savor the moments of the gently rising temperatures, when sitting in the sun is still a pleasant experience and doesn't feel like being roasted!

Check back tomorrow to (finally) see pictures of our house and neighborhood and more cat pictures.