I’ve been walking around today asking people what country I’m in. Now, those of you who have known me for quite some time might not think that’s a strange question, because you never know what country I’ll end up in in a moment’s notice. But, no, I haven’t left Latvia, at least, not that I know of. Everything still looks the same, sounds the same… maybe I’m in the Twilight Zone…

Go ahead, ask.

Question: “Then why are you asking what country you’re in?”

Answer: “Because it’s SO DANG HOT!” How did this happen? I thought I was moving to northern Europe, you know, that place on the globe toward the top, when you start to get frighteningly close to the Arctic Circle. (We’re only 645 miles south.) The place that people start to think where the snow never melts and you have penguin crossings in town (if there are any towns at all… I mean, everyone lives in igloos, right?).

Now, I knew it wouldn’t be that cold all the time. But come on!!! It hit 90ºF today!!! (For my friends in the rest of the world, that would be 32ºC.) What is this? It’s not supposed to be that hot here! That settles it… I now refuse to feel guilty for eating ice cream for dinner.

Ok, the other weird thing… it doesn’t seem to ever rain here. I mean, sure, we get some sprinkles now and then for a couple of minutes, and in all honesty, it must have done something last night because the parking lot was wet this morning, but… I mean, we had our windows open last night and I don’t sleep that deeply, so it really couldn’t have rained much. Oh, for a good Ohio thunderstorm right about now! So, yeah, I’m not sure how anything grows here since it doesn’t seem to ever rain. The only thing I can think of is that all the snow we get raises the water table so much that we don’t need the rain. (Sure, that sounds good, but I’m waiting for someone to comment that this is not quite how it works. If it’s not, then how does anything grow here!?)

I’m not angry, so please don’t read this blog that way… I’m just hot. I’ve never been one to enjoy the heat… ever. I got heat stoke in northern Florida in April one year. Ask my outreach teammates how I fare in hot weather… wait, THIS IS THE SAME TEMPERATURE AS IT WAS IN CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA!!!! ACKK!!! On that trip I got voted “The one most likely to be confused with a polar bear.”

Rumor is that it’s going to be hot like this for the next couple weeks. In the words of my brother, Adam, “Oy vey.”

I’m off for more ice cream…