The Blog
Disclaimer: These are the thoughts and words of one Brittany Johnson and do not reflect the policies or thoughts of the Peace Corps.
The Art of keeping warm in Africa
When thinking about moving to Africa you don’t tend to think about ways to keep warm. Most of the images that come to mind are hot, dry savannas or deserts. And for most of Africa that is the case, for many countries in Africa, during Peace Corps training they teach you how to sleep outside because it is too hot to sleep inside the house or hut. This is not the case for Rwanda. No, Rwanda is unique in many ways to the rest of Africa the first being its climate.
Because Rwanda sits so close to the equator and because the many hills, mountains and volcanoes put the country at a much higher elevation than most African countries the climate here is one of the best you will find. In the east it is flat, dry, and hot. The East is far more similar to say Tanzania, than the rest of Rwanda. The West and North however are a whole new ball game. Most of the hills and mountains are in these regions creating many rainforests. The north and west get far more rain and thus the temperature stays fairly cool for the most part. This now takes us up to my site, the district of Musanze.
The town I live in sits at the base of the five volcanoes that share a border with Rwanda, Uganda, and Congo. And it is beautiful, most mornings when I leave the house early I can see all five peaks of the volcanoes, and they are breath taking. I can also see my own breath. The first night, after buying mattresses, beds (that are still not put together), sheets (that somehow don’t fit my bed) and a nice blanket that has an ocean scene on it, I snuggled down into bed and realized I was cold. The first night ended with me sleeping inside my flannel sleep sack with my new blanket on top of me, wearing sweats; and I was cold. I was so cold that I didn’t want to get out of bed to get my sleeping bag because that would have meant giving up the warmth that I just barley started to create. So I stuck it out the first night, and I did warm up a little and it was fine. However, for the next night I brought out the big guns, my three season sleeping bag.
This sleeping bag is rated to 15 degrees F. And I bought right before I went to Romania, one of the best purchases I made for that trip. I used it many times, at my site and while visiting other people. But I expected to need it, Romania is a cold country and therefore it was a logical and wonderful purchase. I thought about buying a bag that wasn’t rated so low for Rwanda, but didn’t want to spend the money on it, so I just brought it along with me. Not thinking that I would need to sleep in side of it but maybe on it, or something. But no, the second night I pulled out my sleeping bag, and unzipped it a ways leaving the end of the mummy bag zipped up a little for my feet, then I spread my sleep sack on top of the sheets and used my sleeping bag as a sort of blanket, so I was sleeping on the flannel sack, under my sleeping bag in sweats and a sweat shirt with my new blanket on top of it all and that is now how I sleep every night.
Now it is all relative, for you all freezing in winter in America, you would think you were having a heat wave. However, after living here for three months it is cold. There are some days that the tallest volcano Karisimbi, will have snow on its peak. Along with the two hail storms, this country stands in league of its own when it comes to Africa. I feel blessed and lucky to be in this country and not sweltering in the heat like many of our neighboring countries.
