Warm Walk

This year, I can tell that I'm getting used to the heat. At least, my body can tell the difference between a 110 and a 100 degree day. Like today, temps were in the upper 90's most of the day and then just barely crept over 100 for the peak temps. I could tell coming into work this morning that it was a cooler day. Last year, it just seemed hot - all of it was hot, every day was hot. Hot was hot was hot. There didn't seem to be any difference from one day to another. This year, the hot days are still hot, but a day like today seemed quite nice. Not cool, but warm. And warm is nice - compared to hot.

I guess I can say I've acclimated to the heat. When Basil and I headed out on our walk today it was around 97 and I could tell that the temps were dropping into a nice comfortable mid-90s as we continued. Even Basil found it comfortable. This time, as we were walking, I was trying to notice the "every day" things that I see that are no longer strange to me, but were when we first moved here.

Like the housemaids that gather every night around 6 or 7. I don't know what houses they come from, but they all seem to come out around that time. Some of them have a little gathering for a few minutes while they walk the household dogs. Others will have a chat near the dumpsters while they are both taking out the rubbish for the night. But no matter how hot, they always seem to come out around 6 or 7 for a little break in their day. Some of the housemaids have children and when the weather really is nice, the kids come out with them too to ride their bikes up and down the street.

There are the night watchmen that are on duty overnight at each construction site in the neighborhood. These fellows have a little hut built out of plywood on the construction lot. Inside I guess is a bed - and I'm not even sure if there is any electricity. In the evenings, they usually will sit outside to get some of the breeze that usually picks up in the evening. Often, they will walk over to one of the homes in the neighborhood that has a free water dispenser outside and fill up their water bottles. As a charity to the workers, many households will install water dispensers outside their walls. Our neighbors across the street have one and it is well used. The construction workers and laborers in the neighborhood are always filling up empty water bottles.

There's the gardener/driver/house boy who is usually spraying down the driveway to wash off all the sand and dust. What a waste of water. It streams down the roadside. The sand and dust will gather here like swirling snow gathers in the corners of your doorway and near the garage. Russell has a "leaf blower" that he's been using to blow the dust away. If you don't do something, you'd soon have a small dune gathering in your garage. But most of the other households in our neighborhood have the house keeper or driver wash down the garage and driveway with a hose. It drives me nuts to see it. Technically, it is against city ordinance to do it. But no one ever stops them.

There's a guy who rides through our neighbor hood with a lawn mower balanced in a basket on his bicycle. He goes around to houses peddling his services as a gardener. I'm always amazed to see him toodling by with a lawn mower on his bicycle. There's a house round the corner from here that I see him tending. Their gardens look pretty nice. Our friends Mariam and Mohammed have a gardner, they pay him 250 Dhs per month and he comes nearly every day (that's less than US$100). Lots of fellows will walk the neighborhood in the evening looking for extra work (car washing, hosing down the driveway, gardening, etc.) They are usually laborers from a nearby construction site looking for a way to make a little extra money - like our car wash guy who comes on Friday. I have no idea where he is staying or how far away it is, but like clockwork he is always here on a Friday to wash the cars.

There are lots of folks walking down the side of the road (no sidewalks mind you) heading to the local mini-mart. It is amazing the variety of items that these little grocery's have packed in them. And the prices are pretty much comparable to what you'd see at our supermarket. Lots of them will stock items that are from India and the laborers like to go in there and get a little something from home. They do a brisk enough business that they have good turnover on most stock, too. And they all deliver, too. Russell and I have never actually called for a delivery, but they'll bring over a litre of milk for you, a dozen eggs, a few apples, kilo of sugar - you name it. I've been told they will deliver a single can of soda if you asked. Don't know why we haven't asked for delivery. We just tend to get in the car and run to the shops real quick if we realize we need something.

Tonight I went to the locak mini-mart. I was hankering for something cold - seeing as how the fridge guys failed to show up today. And failed to call me and tell me that they would instead be coming TOMORROW. And I only found out when I called to find out where they were and why they hadn't yet shown up. I did not keep my cool. I knew I'd need patience for this. But knowing you need patience and actually HAVING patience are two different things.

Luckily for me, the woman who has been cleaning our house can come by tomorrow at 8am and wait for them. Oh readers, please send me your good thoughts, light some insense, say a hail mary for us to have better luck tomorrow.