One of the major things that seems to be wrong with this year is the weather. I don’t just get it, but nothing seems to be working as it should. We’ve been having irregular weather for months and it’s becoming alarming because from experience, things like this only get worse with time, never better.
The first oddity I noticed was the prolonged rainfall. The rainy season should have ended sometime around September and October, but that was not the case. It kept raining heavily until late November. Every time, we thought the most recent rain would be the last one. But at night, the heavens will open up and empty its bowels upon us again.
It seems to have finally stopped now, but things are still irregular. This is December and as such we should be experiencing harmattan. However, all we get is harsh sunlight and lots of heat. Everyone is complaining about the intense heat, and it’s just frustrating. Especially with the epileptic power supply we have in this country.
Do you know how annoying it can be to bathe in cold water so as to combat the heat, but mere minutes later, it begins to feel like you did nothing? Yeah, that’s the reality of what we’ve been facing for a while now. The only way to escape from this is to power your gen and turn your fan or AC on full blast. That is the only way to keep the heat at bay.
Honestly, I have no idea what is happening. In the past, around this time, my biggest problem would have been to not forget to rub body cream so I wouldn’t have dry skin. During harmattan, dry skin cracked easily and it could lead to injuries. Many times, the lips were the worst hit in this area. So, many of us used lip gloss. Even I used to carry one about at the time, I would sneak my sister’s lip gloss out and use it in school.
Back then, harmattan was also a season to wear hoodies to school for no reason. Because the weather was cold, you could easily lie that you were feeling sick and needed it. So many of us wore hoodies back then, and it was not to combat the cold. Although, it did come in handy when the harmattan got too much.
If things were normal, by now we would be having later mornings because dawn would always be foggy. Bathing cold water in the morning should be impossible because the water would be chilled as if it were from the freezer. In situations like that, you’ll bathe in water so hot that you’d almost boil yourself in the bathroom, and still, it won’t be enough, because the moment it stops running, the cold comes back with a vengeance!
The harmattan has always been a December thing, and seeing as it’s a time many of us travel to our villages, we experience it in its rawest and truest forms. Especially in areas with lakes and rivers, they’re always the worst hit.
This year, however, everything seems to be different. The sun is harsh and always shining bright as if it’s battery no dae die. If you get dry skin, it’s probably because of the excess heat. And then, at night, all the accumulated heat comes back to the fore and makes it miserable for everyone. Honestly, I don tire!!
But then, there’s nothing we can do. It’s not like I’ll leap into the sky and reconfigure the atmosphere. However the weather chooses to be, that’s how we’ll take it. No choice. December is still early though, so I believe that there’s a lot of time for Harmattan to show up. I hope it won’t be one of those times when Harmattan would fail to turn up in December, but then show up briefly in February.
Either way, we’re game. Whatever it’s gonna be, we’re down for it. I guess we just have to see how it goes.
