In the almost four years I’ve lived here I haven’t before experienced cold like this. In the States this would be no big deal, like early November or late April in most places. But here, where homes are not insulated, where there is no central heating and if there is hot water, it’s just a little unit the size of a radio that heats water for the shower, it’s almost scary for the temperature to drop this low and stay dropped.

I have a sweater, jacket and a hat, and I’m wearing them all as I type this. For about the last twelve hours, it’s been raining off and on, dripping the way it does in the spring or fall. Anywhere else, I’d just get in a car and go somewhere once I got sick of being at home, but here I don’t have a car and there’s no where to go that would be warmer.

Poor people, especially those who live in the mountains are dying! I’m crawling into bed every few hours just go lie under the blankets are warm up.

I’m happy to see that it’s raining in the middle of the dry season. Things should green up again. For a while Northern Thailand started to resemble California, and I much prefer the insane green color of most plants, especially rice.

monkeys trying to stay warm