A Tropical Winter

Winter in the tropics…sounds pretty unthreatening, right? Typically it just means cool at night, hot during the day, and some random rain showers. But every now and then there is an anomaly—such as last week. One morning last week I woke up less because my alarm clock went off and more because I couldn’t feel my face. No joke.

Usually my morning shower is how I really wake up—like a cup of coffee to some people, except the smell of coffee in the morning makes me sick. Anyways, after uncovering enough of my head and arm to slap the snooze button on my alarm several times, I decided to forego my morning shower—while standing under a scalding hot spray of water sounded absolutely fantastic, getting out of bed to do so and then later walking to school with a head of wet hair sounded decidedly less fantastic.

Eventually I sat up and, shivering uncontrollably, grabbed my laptop to check the temperature in Kainantu (the outside thermometer at my house always says 70F, whether it’s 90 or 40). 5C. Yup, that’s cold. Especially when you can see daylight through the floor boards in your room. After this revelation, I laid back down, hoping the temperature would magically go up 15 or 20 degrees in the next 15 minutes or so. It didn’t.

When just one pair of slippers doesn't quite cut it,
put on another pair of slippers!

When I finally got up the nerve to get out of bed, I realized that what I had set out to wear last night was not going to work—no way was I wearing a skirt! So I grabbed a pair of jeans, a dress, and a sweatshirt that sort of matched (and by sort of, I really mean “not-really-at-all”). After arranging my hair like a scarf around my neck (there are some advantages to having long hair!) and putting on my favourite fuzzy slipper socks, I was ready for breakfast, which involved warming my still-frozen face over the toaster and heating up water to make tea.

While snarfing down my toast (waiting in vain for the temperature to go up had made me quite late), I realized that it was Tuesday—garbage day—and since I had not taken the trash out last week, I definitely had to do so this week. So after I gathered up the trash, I stuffed my slipper-clad feet into my gum boots (no way was I taking off those slippers!) to set the trash can out by the road. Once I stepped outside, I realized that it was already warmer outside than inside! Then I finished packing my lunch, grabbed my travel mug of hot tea, and (regretfully) removed my slippers to put on my Chaco sandals—because the sun was already out and warming things up, and in a few hours I would want to lose a few layers.