About Me

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Welcome to my adventure in Guatemala! Feel free to comment, positive or negative, and share your stories as well.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

IT.IS.SO.COLD

Soooooo let me describe for you what my hygiene life looks like now that it's winter.

First, imagine that you live in a house made of cement bricks. Now imagine that somewhere in the house there are gaps where there is direct contact with outside air (i.e. a gap between the walls and the roof or a HUGE space between the door and the floor where air and dust creep in.

Now imagine that it's....oooooh between 38-41 degrees fahrenheit. (When I originally looked up the temp is said 55 but I'm pretty sure the ground and plants don't freeze at 55 degrees fahrenheit....I'm just sayin)

Now let's add the most important detail of all-there is no central heating (or heating of any sort for that matter) and NO insulation.

Let's recap:


Cement block walls + gaps where outside air can seep (or flow) in + no central heating.

What does that translate to?
Looking like this INSIDE the house between the hours of 4pm to 10am.
I'm talking a heavy jacket, long-underwear, long socks, a hat and a scarf.
And of course less time spent here...

showering.

Yep you heard right. Sometimes I won't shower aaaaaaall week.

Now you might think that's appalling. Under normal circumstances, I would tend to agree. BUT when it's so cold that you can't possibly sweat and you refuse to work out both because you're almost at 8,000 feet (aka the air is too thin to inhale once walking velocity has reached faster than a stroll) and because Guatemala is extremely-extremely mountainous (where 80% of the time you honestly do walk uphill both ways)...are my failure to exercise excuses sounding valid? In any case, the main point is that the reasons for showering have also declined.

There. My secret's out. I don't shower in the winter.

But think it through. Most of you have no idea what it's like to actually live in a cement building with cement floors and gaps in the walls. Now picture trying to strip down like your clothes are infested with fireants and jump into your cement shower before the freezing air can touch your ashy skin (again a product of the intense, indoor cold).

Trying not to convulse too violently, (lest you chip a beautiful tooth) you soap down. Finally the bathroom is heating up to a bearable temperature but you're already thinking about how you dread shutting off the hot water.

Although you know that running the shower directly affects your electricity bill, you say "screw it, it's too cold to get out" and bask in the warmness/continue to worry about how your this will aversly affect your electricity bill. BUT you remember that this is your first shower all week and it's Thursday and take those few extra minutes to enjoy those minutes of bearable temperature that you so desperately need.

The "fireants in your clothes" speed returns for steps 1-3 (dry off, put on lotion, put on clothes) and finally you're back to the status quo-two jackets, scarf, hat and visible breathe.

Aaaaaaah winter in Guatemala : )