Hey! How about that weather, huh?

Here in Yemen, unfailingly you can discuss the weather. At home the weather is a topic best employed to diffuse awkward social encounters- “soo… yeah… odd weather today, huh?” “yeah, no kidding! Okay.. nice to see you again, bye!” or you discuss the weather in terms of your hopes and dreams- “oh man I hope it snows like thirty feet tonight so I don’t have to go play a million softball games in the dregs of Delaware this weekend!” “yeah! And maybe my final exam will get postponed!”
But here weather isn’t just a casual aside, or an offhand comment. It is THE topic of choice.
My knowledge of weather vocabulary and regional Yemeni weather patterns is quite pronounced so I can converse with the best of them, seamlessly perpetuating an otherwise awkward social encounter. Depending upon the English proficiency level of conversation partner I will-
- Comically/exaggeratedly wipe the sweat from my brow and grin with exasperation
-Discuss weather differences by city and region of Yemen, particularly Aden Vs. Sana’a, Aden Vs. Ibb or Taiz, Aden Vs. any other country.
-Shout out my weather vocabulary and point to the sun, clouds, sky…
-Talk about when is it finally going to start getting cooler
-Talk about what will happen when the winds start really picking up in late July/early August and how that affects the drowning death toll
The weather unfailingly comes up in every conversation.
Since I’ve been here we’ve had two main weather changes. Stepping off the plane it was just brutally hot, just unbelievably kick-you-when-your-down, suffocatingly hot. Then we had a weather change. It somehow got hotter. Perceptively hotter. 110, 120. Just outrageous. The most recent weather change happened about a week and a half ago, the winds started picking up. It’s much dustier than it used to be, not quite as hot. Maybe it’s still just as hot but the wind is making it appear less so. It doesn’t seem as saturatingly humid as before either. Apparently the winds will just keep picking up through August making swimming extremely inadvisable because of subsequent rip-tides and whirlpools.

One nice thing is that it isn’t just me being whiny, everyone complains about the weather all the time. And everyone is sweaty and bedraggled with pronounced bouts of heat-induced lethargy.

The topic of the weather brought forth one of my favorite of all time comments from Ben, “Whew! Well I guess you can see why everyone is so devout here, if it’s this hot here everyday, you can only imagine how miserable hell would be!”