Relative Heat

I thought it was hot as fuck in Marrakech, but I kept seeing people wearing coats, or sweaters and blazers, with hats even in the middle of the day when I felt like if I didn’t get enough water I would pass out. People in Senegal are ridiculous about the heat too, thinking that anything in the 70s is cold, and the 60s is freezing, but Morocco just took heat tolerance to the next level. It’s like the men were subconsciously trying to understand what it was like to wear a black burka in 95 degree weather, by wearing several layers. It was just weird to be walking around in a t-shirt and jeans and wishing I could be in flip flop and shorts, and then seeing people in wool coats and hats.

The Humid Season

Senegal’s rainy season runs from June to October. It has rained about a dozen times in four months, and only four times has the rain been harder than an intermittent drizzle. Really it’s the hot and humid season, to be hopefully followed by a cool and dry season. Or what they call “winter.” It’s so hot that I don’t even go out during the day unless I have a good reason to. I feel bad because rain here means that some people can’t sleep in their homes that are regularly flooded by even the tiniest amounts of rain during the humid season (I refuse to call it the rainy season anymore) but the only times it isn’t ridiculously muggy is when it rains so I find myself hoping for rain often. Most of the time it is like 90˚ F and 90% humidity and it feels like it’s about to rain until it doesn’t.