stay cool

Al humda’allah, eight hours of sleep, courtesy of solar energy and why wasn’t it turned off and what does that say about the resources available I don’t know but I’m thankful.  And how will the rest of the day fare, today’s temps, 106, tomorrow the same, and the next day and so on.  If the US government is financing AUAF in some way the least I can bark about in a very hot place is to provide us with 24 hour energy.  I don’t think it’s too much to ask.

It’s eight in the morning and the coordinator sleeps.  He doesn’t have a swamp cooler in his room but he doesn’t need it because as he says, he’s used to it, but I am not and really do I want to get used to the heat. ‘I’m cold-blooded’, I say.  I teach all the classes in room 3 which is fitted with an air conditioner and a swamp cooler but when I wanted to do a listening exercise I had to turn everything off because the speakers are weak and these machines are damn loud but within ten minutes I was sweating and a headache ensued.  It’s appalling, simply put. 

I have two days now of no classes and on Sunday I’ll begin a class teaching TOEFL, a subject I’m not familiar with, and I hope to find a reasonably cool and well lit place to prepare and is there a lot to prepare.  The textbook is almost 700 pages.

The power is off.  And so too the internet.  That’s ok for now.  I have work to do. 

12.39pm

City electricity charged the solar batteries last night and wa-la, a night of sleep which means it ain’t gonna happen every night.  A big sigh, what to do. 

I am studying the mechanics of the TOEFL and what an ugly monster this is, I’d wager there are a lot of native speakers who wouldn’t fare well in this diagnostic.  The reading pre-test is a hellava challenge and if conditions aren’t right in your head, if the environment isn’t comfortable, that is, if the room is too warm, if the lighting is poor, which it is here when there are no lights, it is very easy to miss questions.  And that is not fair, the environment has to be optimal.

OMG I’m looking at jobs elsewhere, they tease, they incite but I can’t bite.  I feel committed right now to completing the contract but how nice would it be to live in Big Rapids or Stevens Point.  Too nice.  How about Phnom Penh or Bagdad, I don’t think so.

I sit in the very warm office in the cellar and that is not cool, I printed out the toefl syllabus and have to find a place with good lighting and continue prepping.  Shit, right now I would not look or sound very professional.

4:30pm

A floor fan a foot away dries my sweat, keeps away impending headaches, and leaves me too drowsy to read vocabulary exercises anymore.  Shit.  The building is empty.  Saffiq is camped in his office with a larger fan right on him, everyone else is taking refuge somewhere cool and it isn’t, certainly, inside.  Eight hours of sullen silence, what the fu*k man.  I’d like to keep going through the toefl book but damn, how can I when it’s too warm to concentrate.  This is a total bush job, sorry, but I’d like to go to the airport now.  The contract should have included hazard pay for the absurd accommodations offered.  Really.

8.22pm

Fezel Ahmed and I played a few games of badminton and reaching for the little birdy scraped the skin off the top of each toe on my left foot.  The good news is I beat him.  Fezel is a good natured man, father of four small children, he’s a mechanic and a cook, one of the men who served up yesterday’s on the spot pasta salad.  I asked him, through Saffiq, while we sat on the grass as the day darkened and the stars came out, if he could hook up the washing machine tomorrow and find me a line to dry my clothes.  Friday is washing day.  Friday will also be shopping day, I finished the tomatoes I bought when I arrived and need to look for whatever else is out there.

I think I shouldn’t write when I am hot and bothered, my mental disposition is one of escape and despite the absoluteness in which I am alone here, the people around the building are good and I should be good along with them. 

I think what they’re going to do while it’s hot here is sweat it out during the day and use whatever  energy is available throughout the night.  A full night’s rest is imperative and it’ll cut down on my crankiness.