Feeling a little frosty

October was the most beautiful month of weather for this city. It was a lot milder than normal. Usually it is still about 90 degrees all throughout October. Now it is mid-November, and the weather is more like the end of December. It is still rainy, extremely windy, and really cold. The temperature is about 30 degrees inside and outside with a wind chill of a lot lower.

During class today my students said, "Miss Laura, your nose is purple!" I was a little concerned, and pictured myself with a bright purple face. Later I found a mirror and was relieved to see that it was only bright red. Too bad I don't have nose warmers! I do have plenty of long underwear on, though, as well as mittens and my winter coat. I brought my extra warm L.L. Bean coat this year and Columbia boots, but I am still feeling cold. So I walk around the freezing cold classroom looking like a big, lethargic bunny. It takes all my energy just to stay semi-warm.

The class buildings here don't have doors to them, and there are gaps between the extremely thin windows. When I'm writing on the chalkboard, I can feel a quite steady and strong wind blowing on me. The plaster by the windows are all soggy with rain that has streamed inside. My students just complain that it is too cold to write or do anything. My heart aches for them, because they don't have any quality clothes and shoes. Jodi said one girl in her class today literally had blue fingers.

This afternoon I had Chinese tutoring, so I took my friend Amy nearby to the teacher's cafeteria for lunch. The food was already like icicles before it even hit our metal bowls.

In other news, it's not unusual for the power and water to be cut off here pretty frequently. Yesterday the water was off for about five hours and we managed to cook a pretty decent meal of noodles and chicken - all without using water! And the power has gone out for the past two nights just as I'm trying to get to bed. Tonight I 'thought' expectantly, "Can You please turn the power on?" At that very second, the electricity came back on! I ran to Jodi's room and told her what had happened. And right as I was telling her, the power cut off again. Jodi said with her usual dry humor, "Next time you should be more specific." Then I 'thought', "Please turn the power back on and leave it on! Thank you!"

Hope you're staying warm wherever you may be!