Hot Weather.

It's hot today and supposed to be even hotter the next few days, and invariably when we comment upon the heat we hear something like "Oh, you must have gotten used to hot weather, living in Africa!" In our little corner of the continent, not so much.

I have mentioned before that Addis Abeba is located at about 7,500 feet above sea level, way more than "mile high". This makes it a challenge to breathe and to bake, but it really mellows out the subtropical climate so that the weather is bearable almost all the time. Located a few degrees north of the equator, the city has the same summer-winter pattern that you would find in the rest of the Northern hemisphere, but there's not a huge difference between the seasons in terms of temperature. In fact, because the summer months are also the wettest in terms of rainfall, the average high temperature is about the same in January as it is in June -- a balmy 74 degrees Fahrenheit.

There isn't a lot of energy dedicated to modifying the indoor environment, which is to say, no air conditioning and also no central heating. We were grateful for the advice to bring our down comforter, which we only took off the bed when the nights warmed up in April and May, and for our warm winter coats on chilly January mornings when our breath hung frosty in the air. We wore long sleeves and sweatshirts far more often than we wore shorts.

But this entry is about heat, not cold. Even though it didn't get extremely warm in Addis, there is definitely an intensity to the African sun that could seem relentless on a hot day, even to the Ethiopians. During the early days, we noticed that drivers would stop short of the line at a red light if it meant that the car could idle in the shade of a nearby tree, a technique that we now find ourselves embracing on hot summer days in Oregon. It was just as likely in those days to see umbrellas used as protection against the sun as against the rain, which is why I carry an umbrella in the desert -- although Ethiopian sun umbrellas are gorgeous, elaborate objects made of damask fabric and fringe that put my little umbrella to shame.

Of course the best way to deal with heat in the Pacific Northwest is to escape to the ocean, a technique that was never available to us or our friends in landlocked Ethiopia... but one that we plan to put into practice ourselves, this weekend. Stay cool!