More than hot

“I think it is cooling down”, one colleague told me last day when we were leaving the school, while I felt like the heat was going through the soles of my shoes. Indeed, as I was informed when I arrived, the temperatures have decreased comparing with the ones at the end of August. We have experienced maximum temperatures near 50 Celsius degrees, but now it is “just” 42º, something to celebrate actually.

 

My empty street, no matter at what time

Kuwait has the dubious honor of leading the ranking of the hottest cities in the World, reaching and even surpassing 50 Celsius degrees some days, and it will continue increasing due to climate change. It implies a big investment in air conditioning equipment to keep cool structures such as those huge malls (the only places where it seems to be social life and entertainment during these days), environmentally unviable. Here a different and sustainable urban design is starting to be proposed in order to reduce all this energetic wastage.

 

 

A lot of people go to the malls just for having a walk

 

No unexpectedly, this range of temperatures, with minimum one not dropping less than 30ºin the night, conditions a large part of my life. People still prefer to spend their free time staying in their apartments, so the chances for going out and socializing are not so many. When I went out to explore a bit, I came back after a while since I couldn’t bear the heat anymore. I couldn’t continue my running sessions neither. After half an hour I need to stop, I really can’t resist. Even in the night there is no respite for going out without carrying a towel to dry the sweat.

 

The seaside walk in the night, when you can already breath a little bit

 

Despite all this, I have to say that spending last summer in Cordoba was very useful for me to tolerate better these firs weeks in this oven and not desperate till we can reach a nicer weather (maybe in October the situation can change). Even so, this kind of circumstances affects more when at work things are not going on as I expected. Last week I had to abandon my counselor duties as I needed to substitute a teacher who we don’t know when she will be back, so I am a bit worried now. But anyway, now it is when I have to show that thing I try to teach my students: being resilient and seeing the setbacks as opportunities to grow. That is what this experience is all about.