Below Zero?

Apparently, it’s been pretty cold in North America lately. My parents sent me the weather report (35 below) and I saw this picture from Fairbanks, Alaska on a friend’s blog.
Meanwhile, we are sweltering through the summer here. The first week back after Christmas brought the kind of heat that just makes you sweat while sitting still. This past week was cooler in that I only sweated through my shirt when I started moving around. Combine this with a bunch of people in Itipini who don’t have regular access to baths and it makes for a pretty ripe-smelling clinic.

For fun, I told my co-workers how cold it was in the U.S. and Canada. Have you ever tried to explain how temperatures can be below zero? To a group of people who have never experienced it? I’m not sure if they took me seriously that it could actually happen. People here know what it is like to be cold but when people here were wearing winter hat and scarves, I was wearing shorts and t-shirt. Even saying “really cold” doesn’t encompass temperatures below zero.

Then I tried to explain that when I lived in Alaska, I had a winter coat that cost $400 (courtesy of the Nome Ambulance Department). They really couldn’t conceive spending that much money on a coat or even what would make a coat cost that much.