This is a picture from our 'alternative pool.' One of our friends here says that when she checks the thermometer in the house, if it's more than 90, she turns on the air cooler, and above 95 she heads to the pool with the kids.
I was very fearful about how the heat would be here. We had read on one blog about some long-termer saying the only time he was comfortable here was in his air-conditioned car. September was tough because it was still hard to sleep at night, and our air-cooling equipment in Niamey was lacking. Now in the past month it has once again gotten pretty warm at night, but our swamp cooler has actually done a good job. March, April, May, June, is prime time for the swamp coolers, because they work by humidifying the air... once the rains come in July-September things cool off a bit, and anyway the air is not dry enough for them effective. But we have really appreciated our little unit: we're not as tough as the Africans I guess.
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