I feel that the harmattan needs a short mention in my blog as it is quickly becoming my biggest demon so far in Bolga! The harmattan refers to a dry and dusty West African wind where temperatures have been soaring as high as 40+ degrees!!
Last night I slept for 14 hours (almost straight) and probably sweated for that whole 14 hours, which means I lost a lot of fluids and salt, which is never a good thing! I think it made me realise that I am nowhere near being fully acclimatised yet, especially as I have arrived at the hottest time of year, which even volunteers who have been here for years struggle with!
As most of the volunteers here have had malaria at least once during their placement, I am trying to be cautious with mosquitoes, but seeing as they love me, that is proving quite difficult! As always on my travels I’m not sleeping under a mosquito net as it is just too claustrophobic and hot but soon I may have to surrender if I continue to get bitten like this! Luckily the magic tiger balm/golden cup (depending on what you fancy) is working it’s charm and taking away the itch from my bites, which is a HUGE relief!
So the moral of the story during harmattan is to replace fluids and salt asap in order to continue enjoying ‘bumming around’ and to follow VSO’s advice and sleep under a mosquito net! Today I have done one of those two things...!
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