Texture to life – humidity

[NOTE: to get the full effect of this blog post please read in your kitchen sitting in front of your oven…with the oven door open and set to 450 degrees… with a spray bottle in hand, spraying your face with water every 2 minutes.]

Before we moved here to the Philippines I asked Allan what he was looking forward to in our move.  He thought about it and replied “life has more texture in the Philippines.”  One of those textures to life here in the Philippines is the weather.  Right now it is summer time, which is March through May, where it doesn’t rain much and is very hot and humid.

From start to finish it took our family about 5 full years to raise support.  During those 5 years the number one thing Filipinos would warn me about when they heard of our plan to move here was “it is very hot and humid.”  So I guess you can say I was prepared for the weather.  But almost everyone will agree that there is a difference from having an intellectual knowledge about something and actually experiencing it first hand.  So I thought I’d write up a blog post about the weather, trying to capture my experience of it so far.

By the numbers

The temperature here our first couple weeks was in the mid to high 90’s, with at least one day I know of that it reached 100, and 107 in the parking structure.  The humidity level I am a little unsure of – but when I checked once the humidity was about 85%.  Being a native from Southern California I didn’t know what humidity really was, but to put it in perspective, in California when it reaches 100 degrees the humidity level is usually in the single digits.

You’d think with those numbers we’d all be screaming in agony.

Ironically even with those stats our boys never once complained about the weather, even though they looked like they constantly just stepped out of the shower.

But it was encouraging that even though we were all dripping in sweat around the clock, the locals seemed to be dry (well at least in comparison).  That also meant that we drink lots and lots of water.

We also learned from our teammate that when you sweat and the sweat does not evaporate from your body a heat rash will form as your pores get clogged with sweat and has no where to go.  One product that helps bring relief to heat rash is Prickly Heat powder.  Basically it is a baby powder type product with a little menthol tingly action. 

As well as evaporating from your body, water doesn’t evaporate from the ground as fast either.  We spilt a puddle of water in our kitchen in the morning, only to come back 12 hours later and find the same puddle waiting for us.

Keeping Cool!

So how does one find relief from the heat?  Well there are a variety of differences in houses here to accommodate for the weather.  One is I haven’t seen carpet anywhere.  All the homes I have been in have had cement floors, or tiles or some type of hard floors.  Another is most homes doesn’t have hot water.  So that means you take cold showers, or you have a small water heater installed in your bathroom to warm up the water a little. 

Furniture is also different.  A very common type couch seems to be the wicker style couch with cushions.  Here is a picture of the one in the condo we are staying at right now.

Electric fans are wonderful!  Especially with a face full of sweat.  Add your natural body air conditioner (sweat) to the breeze of an electric fan and you can find yourself quite comfortable indeed!  Even Jakob learned the correctly position to cool off.

But sometimes you are in public or simply not in front of an electric fan, so another great way to stay cool is to keep a hand held fan in your purse.  Here is my first fan I received as a gift from Allan’s aunt.

Funny, even the boys have learned to play creatively in this weather.  When we are in the bedroom (the one room with air con) the boys will run from the air con mounted on the wall all the way to the bed, shouting “super mega!” and pretending that the air con is so forceful it pushes them across the room.  They also giggle with glee when the fan is turned on and stirs up all the dust bunnies.  They giggle and jump and try to catch the dust bunnies as they float through the air.  One other time we were waiting for Daddy and decided to go down to the pool – just to put our feet in – only to find out that was too tempting of an activity for the boys in this weather.

Central air con is rare here.  Electricity is expensive, so if I family can afford to have an air con unit, they might only have one and it would be found in the bedroom.  That also means that if you run the air con at night, then the whole family gathers together and sleeps in the same room.  The condo we are staying at right now already planned for such a set up.  Here is a picture of the bedroom, queen bed for mom and dad, and daybed with trundle pull out for the kiddos.  Also all you really need is a pillow, no need for blankets or even a sheet.

Not much explanation is needed for what type of clothing is more comfortable in hot weather.  But one typical style pajamas for kids is an all cotton tank top (a “sando”) with matching shorts.  Loose, comfy and breathable.  The boys also got all new sets of Filipino style pajamas from Allan’s aunt as a welcome gift.  Too bad they don’t come in women adult sizes. Here is little Noah sporting his new look.

I am confident that as time passes our family will get intimately acquainted with all the various aspects of the texture of life that the humid weather adds to living here in the Philippines.  Weird and random aspects, such as unwrapping a fresh piece of chewing gum, only to bite down and find the texture more like ABC gum (already been chewed)…. Or getting used to the fact that my chin now sweats (a lot!) so much so that it feels like I am constantly drooling, so I casually and nonchalantly try to wipe off my “drool” (slightly embarrassed that I am a grown adult drooling) only to realize its just sweat.  J  I am guessing all these things will eventually become “normal” but for now, I hope this blog post gives you a small glimpse of what we have been experiencing thus far.

Now don’t forget to turn off your oven and close the door.