Gisim tai giamulu haragam

I can't believe I've been having Arabic lessons for so many months, and just now learned how to say, "I'm sweating"!

And man, are things ever starting to heat up here. Rainy season is definitely over. And somehow, it seems to have ended over night. I literally woke up one morning last week, desperately in need of lip balm and hand lotion. On the way across the compound to my office, my feet were crunching on the drying grass and weeds. When the breeze blows, the tin roof is peppered with the pitter patter of falling leaves. Dry season has officially arrived.

I think the thought of the heat that is to come is almost worst than the heat that is currently here! I'm definitely spending more time in the afternoons sweating in my office - for the last few days, it's been hovering around the 36C mark inside my office, with the fan blowing (that is, when the generator is running). It's at the point now where when the generator goes off at 5pm, I can't last much longer in the office without the fans - gisim tai giamulu haragam katir because it's just so hot and still. This afternoon, I just came home at 5:30 and had a little nap, stretched out (well, as stretched out as one can be on a wicker love-seat) in the verandah.

I was also feeling hot this afternoon because I was running from one office to another - trying to contain a virus. I wonder if NGO workers who are working to contain cholera or menengitis outbreaks feel like I've been feeling over the past two days. There are about 25 computers on the compound (I counted one day last week exactly how many computers there are, but I've now forgotten), and there's a lot of information and files shared between all of those computers. So when one computer got a virus here... it spread like wildfire. 6 computers on the compound have now been infected - three are still needing some serious attention from the community health worker.

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out the path of the infection, and the rate of it's spread, doing community awareness raising and mobilization to try to stop the contamination from spreading any further and trying to get the computer users to alert me ASAP when they see any of the signs and symptoms. Yesterday afternoon, I thought I had the virus contained, and I breathed a sigh of relief. But then, this afternoon, three more computers exhibited symptoms, so it was back to work.

And all of this in the midst of facilitating a Writer's Workshop, finishing up some literacy books, and dealing with a plethora of emails requesting all sorts of information and asking me to do all sorts of things... in my 36C office. Phew, no wonder I've been sweating a bit today.

Speaking of which... I think I'd better go take a shower...