Now that we are a week into November, we are very excited for the imminent (we hope!) end to our first hot season here in Senegal. Many of you have asked us about the hot season so we thought we’d write a post about our experience.
October is said to be the worst month as the rainy season has ended and the humidity builds without any more showers to bring a reprieve. During October the average high temperature during the day was probably in the mid-to-low 90’s, or in the mid-to-high 90’s with the heat index. And if you are out in the sun it feels much worse. The temperature doesn’t really drop off at night, which has been one of the hardest parts of hot season because you never really get a break from the heat. In the middle of the night the temperature remained around 90 with the heat index. Because of this the temperature inside our home probably averaged in the high 80’s or low 90’s. Turn on a stove or oven to cook and the temperature in the kitchen can easily climb into triple digits.
All that being said, in some ways, hot season was not as bad as we expected. We felt like we could continue to function (most of the time) and I (Adam) was not grumpy 100% of the time like I thought I might be. We are very blessed to have air conditioning in our rooms to sleep at night. Without this, I am sure that this hot season would have been very different. In fact, a common question asked here in Senegal as part of the greeting process is to inquire about how someone slept the night before. We’ve heard many times over the last several months from students or our house help that they have not been sleeping well because it’s just too hot.
Just the other night our electricity went out at around 10pm and remained off until roughly 2am. Without having air conditioning or even a fan to circulate the air, the heat was truly oppressive. Thankfully our kids stayed asleep for the first couple of hours while their room remained somewhat cool, but eventually woke up because of how hot they were. I spent much of that time sitting in a folding chair in front of a window just hoping for a breeze. Many Senegalese will actually sleep on their rooftops during hot season and I was contemplating how to make this happen for our family right before our power was restored.
We’ve found that during the day if you don’t move much and if you stay in front of a fan, it’s not too bad. But once you remove any part of that equation, the sweating is quick to start. For example, and this may be TMI for some of you, we’ve found that often the worst room in the house is the bathroom because there are no fans or airflow. I proudly follow in the footsteps of my father in spending too much time on the porcelain throne. However, this way of life is not kind to me here. The picture in this post that you might think is me after coming home from a run. In fact, that is me after coming out of the bathroom. Here’s to the end of hot season!
-Adam
*The day after typing this we had what we believe is the cold front that will usher in the cooler season! A breeze could be felt all day and the temperatures were in the 80s with a much lower humidity as well! I’ve declared that the end of hot season will officially be a holiday our family celebrates 😊
