How to Survive Hot Season

I like to think of myself as a very rational, logical, common sense type of person. However, I've been loathed to write about hot season, for fear that I'll jinx it and make it even hotter. This fear forces me to look deep within myself and admit that I am superstitious. This superstitious fear of increased heat also comes from a tiny place of relief inside of me. Because for a whole, it was hot, but not unbelievably hot and we allowed ourselves the arrogant thought that hot season wouldn't be that bad this year.

However, in the past three weeks, the heat went from tolerably hot to inexplicably hot, when you sweat before 7:30am, when nothing you wear is cool enough, when you can't manage to consume enough water. Everyday for the last few month, I asked my Khmer colleague if it will get hotter. Every time he laughed at me and said, "yes, it will get more hot." Until last week when I finally got the answer I wanted, "it is the most hot now." This is comforting because it means we can only get cooler.

Hot season is aptly named, because it is so hot. It starts early March and runs through the end of May (all dates approximate). A perfect hot season should see no rain. However, we've had a few thunderstorms which are also extremely welcome. When you first arrive in Cambodia, you wonder why people are up at 5am. Upon reaching hot season, this quickly makes sense because often by 9am, it's already soring into the high 90s. When I get home from work, it averages 96 in my house, so I open all the windows and doors and it cools down to the low 90s. Driving after 10am is much the same as driving into a hair dryer, and the breeze on your face which is often so welcome, is hot and smoggy and you can literally imagine the smog is sticking to your sweaty face. If that sounds nasty, it's because it is, incredibly nasty.

There are several coping strategies to hot season.

• Cold showers. A truly hot day in hot season, can call for three showers.
• Mangoes: Hot season is when mangoes are in season, and so unbelievably cheap that you start to drool. 
• Work: I don't at all mind going to work. It means the opportunity to be air conditioning because after 10am, my house heats up like an oven.
• Sun: The sun also seems harsher in hot season, and I tan on my mere 20 minute afternoon commute to my partner organization. I also burn after not that much more time outdoors. Still, a nice tan from a seasonal change isn't inherently bad.
• AC (also known as "air con"): I do have AC in my house, which is reserved exclusively for sleeping or the electric bill is outrageous. AC five years ago, was considered luxurious and unnecessary. Thank God I didn't live here five years ago.
• Common Misery: The nice thing about hot season is that everyone experiences it together. Even with AC, the sun shines on the just and the unjust. I take comfort that even with sweat rings, damp clothes, and a greasy face, everyone else looks about the same. The standards lower ever so slightly, and without this, I wouldn't survive quite so well.

Technically, we're about halfway through hot season 2012. We can only hope and pray that it end "on time," or that June's rains come early. I'm not quite so superstitious about rainy season.