Daily grind

I have to get used to things taking longer. For one thing, the heat has been much more hot up here in Maun. I was slightly startled the other day when I took out a thermometer to see if I had a fever and, when I turned it on, it started registering a temperature right away. I've never lived anywhere hot enough to register on a digital thermometer before; usually mine says “Lo” when I first turn it on. Anyhow, just checked the temperature in the living room; it's a blistering 92 indoors. But I haven't been able to just stay inside today since we got back from a week of travel and I had to catch up on laundry. Since we've been working the last 7 days straight, we had to take today as our household duties day. Rob is still working on his Setswana for this (coming) Sunday, as I also will, once I finish this blog entry.

Back to my point (I'm rambling in this heat); things take longer. I can't just go clip the sticky weeds cropping up around the clothesline because I'd quickly be roasting. I have to do it in spurts. And I'm not just tossing today's 5 loads of laundry in the dryer. I'm putting it on the line, again in short bursts to brave the heat. I'd think I was crazy doing laundry in this heat but a quick glance around the neighborhood shows a lot of people thinking the same thing. Clothes are hanging everywhere, despite the misery of hanging and taking it in. It's rainy season, that's the thing. We have to make clean clothes while the sun shines.

Also, I'm trying to continue unpacking. 1.5 years without a filing cabinet has meant bags and boxes of unfiled papers that I am, frankly, dreading to have to go through. Still, I made a dent in it today. We haven't bought a bookcase yet but there is some built-in shelving in the room that we're using as an office that I managed to spread my books out on, so as to actually make use of them in the coming months.