Wanna Know How Hot It Is?!

So I'm back in Mauritania after a whirlwind trip to DR (Congratulations Todd and Rachel! Your wedding was beautiful and the lightning only made it that much more exciting!). Despite an excess baggage fee of 450 Euros (Lindsey is going head to head with Air France for me), and nearly getting deported (for real!), I am here. And sort of glad to be. Really, I'm finding small things to be happy about. Like the way the Neem trees in Nouakchott are all blooming right now and so for once the city smells something you could describe as lovely! The tiny, delicate, white blossoms look like baby daffodils and smell like lilacs (my favorite!). Aleg doesn't have enough Neem trees to smell as fragrant, but there was a clean/smoky type smell in the air today that suggested something like wood was being burnt rather than charcoal or dead animals. What's making me most happy though, is having my little Brookstone travel clock/calendar/thermometer. I can know what the temperature is any time I want now!

When I got home on Thursday evening I was greeted by Lily and so-happy-to-see-me-she-piddled Soeur (Lily's puppy). Almost everyone else in in St. Louis for Jazz Fest right now. Lily informed me that the water had been off for 2 days at that point (it has yet to come on) and that the power has, of course, been off and on as well. But we both rejoiced that it was cool out, eating dinner outside and noting that Brookstone said it was 90 degrees. The next morning I woke up cold around 5:30am and saw that it had dipped below 90 during the night and was inching its way past 88 as the sun came up. Around 11:30am I wimped out at 118 degrees and crawled into my tent with the fan on to read. I passed out and woke up at 3:30pm to find that it was 131 degrees (probably the peak for the day).

All these temperatures may not fascinate you as they do me, and despite the warning many of you gave me that I wouldn't want to know, don't be surprised if every future blog enty I make comes with a weather report. I'm not sorry. You have movie theaters, libraries, art galleries, BARS, public parks, TV, etc. to entertain you. I have a stack of books (courtesy of the Grace cousins and my sister) AND my thermometer. It is enough to keep me content for the next 14 months and 18 days... I hope.

Current weather: 96.5 degrees inside, not a cloud in sight