Living the Life of Riley
From the Field June 14, ’15
Heat – I arrived in India in the midst of a heat wave with temperatures consistently over 100 F. It was reported that during this heat wave well over 1000 people lost their lives due to the heat, though you have to remember that is in a country of over one billion. As a pampered American, I have AC in my bedroom. Our people have to sleep outdoors during a time like this at night. April and May are the hottest months usually. It is the time of summer vacation and sometimes during the extreme heat they put off opening up schools. But the heat wave has broke and now it is around the high ninety’s during the day. The landlord invited me down to see me and his son(US citizen now) from Texas was there. We discussed the heat and I related to them how it was in Nigeria and some like it hot.
Ants – I have not seen one of those ubiquitous creatures in this second floor flat. That is something. In the previous flat we lived in on the 7th floor periodically we would see a column of them heading from the hall to the kitchen to forage. Some of them would even chew through paper to get to the contents. Go to the ant thou sluggard and learn industriousness. When we lived in Nigeria we could not leave food out on a table for long before the ants would come to get what they thought was their fair share. They were the African garbage man.
Monkeys -No monkeys here though at our previous flat marauding monkeys would come over from a forested area and climb up the drain pipes looking for edibles. One even came in and snatched a bag of chips on the table while I was there (previously a more health conscious one took an apple) and then scurried down the stairwell with it, evidently not wanting to lose any chips having to balance down the drain pipe. I put a wire mesh over our windows after that to keep the marauders outside.
Mosquitoes – The wire mesh was not fine enough though to keep out the mosquitoes. This flat has fine screening on all the windows. And I have not seen one mosquito. At the old flat we would open the windows during the day to let the air go through. Then about five in the evening we closed the windows up to keep out the mosquitoes who would be looking for night quarters.
As for lizards, well they are even in kings’ palaces.
We know we should be content with food and raiment, though God gives us so much more. The Lord provides as He sees fit what is best for us. And we seek to find enjoyment in all our toil under the sun.
After eighteen months absence, it is the people one misses, the co-workers in God’s vineyard. As to creature comforts I missed two:
the 45 varieties of shakes at the Fruit Shop(and this in addition to fruit juices) and another fluid that was originally concocted here in 1857.