First Term Review - Weather (by Thom)

We're snowed in today. This is a strange experience! After a couple years in Mali, West Africa where the temps rarely dip below 90 during the day we're living in the 20's and 30's now in Northern Michigan. We're up here vacationing before our furlough officially starts and it is certainly a different world!
In West Africa the first thing you notice as you get off the plane is the taste of dust in the air. I experienced this in Burkina Faso 3 years ago and Amanda and I have lived with the dry, dusty air the last couple of years. At times it feels stifling. The heat during hot season is brutal. It gets to around 120 during the day and only dips into the 90s at night. Still, we survived the extreme temperatures and found fun ways to live with it. We ended up taking 4 or 5 showers a day during the worst of the hot season to cool our bodies down.
In the summertime the rains start and between June and October we have frequent rain storms. One thing we noticed is how much life stops when the rains are falling. Church starts late, stores and roads are empty, and hundreds of moto-bikes are parked under the overpasses.
Before returning for our Home Assignment I was noticing how sandy the roads were becoming. I ride a moped to work and I discovered that I better not take any sudden stops. A couple of weeks ago I came around a corner to discover a power line hanging only about 5 feet off the ground! I tried to brake only to slide. It was a lot like driving on the ice of Michigan. I ended up missing the power line but it struck me as a funny thing that you don't see much in the West.
Now that we're in the cold our family is transitioning. I didn't even own a winter coat so our first day in the US was spent buying warm clothes. We also bought Miri and Hannah winter coats. They don't seem to mind being out in the cold but they definitely don't like the wind! They pucker up their little mouths and start to whimper. It's very cute. They also look very cute in their coats, as you can see: