Thinking of the Heat in Port-au-Prince

Yes, Haiti steams. The humidity and near-equatorial sunshine settles on the rocky surfaces and only occasional breezes move the palm fronds. Even near the coast, the landscape glitters. But especially in smoggy traffic, crawling past the busy markets, the heat is pretty suffocating. Kim and Patrick are learning to live in this atmosphere. When I visited, there were only a couple of hours a day that I felt miserable, but I'm sure the summer is just beginning there.

When we were little kids in Oak Park, (Kansas City, MO - housing development north of the river), no one had A.C. 1950-'60-s, and we suffered through some wicked hot and humid summer nights. One trick was to dampen the bedsheets with cold water, then sleep near a floor fan. Sometimes we even put wet towels over us, too. (Evaporation is the poor man's A.C.) However, it works only if electricity is present. Also, the heavy humidity prevents much evaporation!

Those were the “bad ol’ days” and I don’t miss ‘em! Missouri, with all its forests, hills, streams, rivers, valleys -- is a sauna in the summer. We had to wear skirts and blouses to work in the summertime, and all cotton. We’d kill ourselves ironing and then ride in an un-A.C.’d car all the way into town...and step out looking like we’d slept in our duds....and were still dripping! I can still feel the damp shirt sticking to my back against the car seat. Kansas at least has wind, dry wind. Dust, yes, occasionally, but the air MOVES!

Downtown, the truly impoverished Kansas Citians would flee their apartments and boardinghouse rooms to sleep outside in the parks.

When we were little babies, downtown in Kansas City, Kansas, our folks and we would spend nights out on the "sleeping porch," a second-story balcony screened in on three sides, safer than the park, but still barely helpful, as the tall buildings of downtown had soaked up the sun's radiance during the day and then radiated it back toward our apartment building all night long. I was too young to appreciate that I was suffering, but my parents certainly missed sleeping out in the front farmyards of their childhood homes on the prairies of Kansas where they grew up during the hot, dry 30's.