tea gardens

tea gardens

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Heat and dust

Almost half a century of living in the same city and despite it's familiar and comfort there is one thing that I find hard to come to terms with . The heat is killing. We live on the coast and the blue waters beacon,here I have played for many a summer in sweltering heat and not complained,but over the years concrete had replaced the once shady avenue trees,gardens some of them overgrown and wild,have given way to well manicured lawns and landscaped beauty but not enough to counter the heat. We live like battery chickens in little pigeon holes we call apartments,with air conditioning and all the facilities all adding up to the heat. Every year I write about the heat but this time I made a cardinal mistake. In an effort to escape this furnace I ran away to the cool hills in the hope of spending summer there but had to cut short the visit and land back in there middle of the dog days. Our bodies which might have got used to the heat had we stayed, is now taking time to adjust so my swollen feet are beefing submerged in ice to keep my body temperature low,my mother is hiding in the shade of her room nursing an upset stomach and refusing to eat while I toil away trying to keep heat and dust at bay. Will I ever get used to this or will it get more and more difficult as the years go by. Are the hills an option?. Perhaps but the isolation and lack of infrastructure may be a problem. Caught as you can see between the devil and the deep blue sea I pray for some respite but none comes and so to suffer is my lot and I learn the hard way to accept the things I cannot change....such is life in a city on the coast that replicates a desert.