Sad news from Marloth Park…The impact of power outages…

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Red hibiscus are commonly found in this area.

Louise wrote to me yesterday to share the sad news of the loss of Nyala Nina, Norman’s partner, and Noah and Natalie’s mother, had her baby a few weeks ago. Sadly, the little one, a female, had an injured leg within a few days of her birth. Dr. Peet darted her, but the injury was so intense she had to be euthanized. This news saddened everyone in Marloth Park, as we are now. The gestation period for a nyala is 220 days. It will be a long time until she has another offspring.

On another note: The power was out for two hours. Maria, our weekly cleaner, is here, and the bedding is stuck in the washer, unable to complete the cycle due to the outage. There is no way it will be done before she leaves around 11. Making the bed is a challenge since the bed is so low and close to the floor. There are other sheets, but today, we decided to wash the mattress cover since it smelled dusty and moldy. So we must wait to remake the bed when the bedding is done.

Bougainvillea in the front garden of the holiday home.

Being located on the ocean, all fabrics have that musty smell. In a way, it makes us rethink choosing holiday homes situated on the ocean. The humidity is palpable. Everything feels wet, even our clean clothes, when we put them on. The question is…will we wash and dry everything before we go or wait and see where we go next and do it there?

In the next 30 days, we will know where we are going from here. Flying out of here is tricky. Manta, the closest city, doesn’t have many options. We don’t want to fly back to Quito, and the next biggest airport is Guayaquil, a three-hour drive from here. Plus, we have to figure out where we’ll be able to drop off the final rental car.

Pink bougainvillea n the front garden.

Time will tell. At this point, we continue to research our options, but now, with the power outages, the time to do so is limited. I still spend several hours posting each day, and with limited cooking supplies, it seems to take longer to prepare meals.

Also, now that I have increased my daily indoor “stepping/walking,” every 15 minutes, that takes up a considerable amount of time each day. I have found it easier to walk every 15 minutes rather than attempt to get it done in one or two fell swoops. My legs aren’t ready for that yet. It may take several weeks before I can walk a longer distance over an extended period.

This is where we have to drop off the garbage. Recycling is not done here.

We are looking forward to going out for dinner tomorrow night. I translated the menu and found one more item I can eat: chicken kabobs. I don’t know how they are made or the sauces used, but I will figure something out. Otherwise, there were no other options besides the plain, dry hamburger patties I had last week.

The lot next door is for sale. We have no idea as to the asking price.

It’s still morning here, and the day is young. We have plenty to do to keep us busy, making the days fly by in a blur. Two months from now, we will be on our way to the yet-to-be-determined location.

Two birds on the beach.

Of course, we will report back as soon as we know more. Oddly, we aren’t worried about this, knowing full well that we will figure something out that works for us. Since the pandemic, we don’t plan as far ahead as we used to years ago. With the ongoing possibility of lock-downs in some locations, we aren’t willing to risk losing more money.

Maria managed to get the bedding on the bed before she left and, once again, did a fantastic job. We certainly appreciate having a weekly cleaner, making our days easier, and spending less time washing floors and dusting.

Today will be a quiet day. With the power back on, hopefully, for the remainder of the day, we can continue with research while every 15 minutes, I start walking again.

Be well.

Photos from ten years ago today, November 7, 2013:

In Diani Beach, Kenya…hand washing our underwear and placing it in the kitchen window seems to dry it more quickly than hanging it anywhere else inside. I no longer use the clothesline. The last time I walked out back to hang a few items in the tall grass, I was stung on my thigh, resulting in a very painful huge welt that eventually turned into a huge black bruise, lasting for weeks. For more photos, please click here.

Automatic email isn’t sending…WiFi issues continue…Hot, humid and uncomfortable day…TIA…

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Zebras stopped by looking for pellets.

Dearest readers who have chosen to receive automatic emails with our posts each day, we sincerely apologize that this feature has only worked on and off over the past few years since we changed our site while we were in lockdown in India. We realize the inconvenience this has been for our readers. Again, for time #25, I have contracted our hosting company Hostinger to resolve this issue.

I’ve kept each request in an ongoing email message. They know how chronic this issue has been. My only solution is to move to another hosting company, which requires lots of work and the potential loss of money since I paid several years in advance for a discount. They don’t give refunds.

They usually fix it, but it only lasts for a short period. In the interim, please let me suggest an easy alternative to receiving the latest post with no more clicks required than when you received the email. Do this once each day anytime after 24 hours of when you would have received the email:

Go to your address bar. Type in: www.worldwidewaftage.com

That’s all you have to do. Each day our web address brings up the latest post anytime after you would have received the email.  You can do this on your phone as well.  Alternatively, you can create an icon on your desktop or home screen for: www.worldwidewaftage.com and click it once a day, anytime within 24 hours of receiving the previous auto email.

Today, I plan to send the post manually as a group. Tom is included in that group, and I will know if it works if he receives it. I will let you know tomorrow, and if that’s the case, you can ignore the above instructions. I will manually send the email posts in a group each day. Sorry for the inconvenience!

This isn’t Lollie and her three piglets. It’s another mom. One of the piglets hops since she has a bad front leg. We call her “Hoppy.” She seems to be thriving, although the way she runs is both heartbreaking and funny.

Besides that, we still have WiFi issues in the house (this isn’t the cause of posts not going out). Over the past week, we have yet to be able to stream an entire episode of a show on my laptop when we hunker down for the night. It starts and stops every few minutes. As a result, we’ve been stuck playing with our phones before we go to sleep, playing games that don’t require a strong internet signal.

To avoid continually pestering Louise at all hours of the night, I have been communicating directly with our service provider. After installing a more powerful router, we’ve had some improvements but needed more to make streaming seamless. Today, the company’s owner is coming out to see what is wrong and discover how he can fix it.

Of course, this is frustrating. After eating and sitting on the veranda, we want to go inside our bedroom, away from insects, get comfy and watch a few hours of our favorite TV series. We want to be able to stream until 10:00 pm, 2200 hrs., after which we’re happy to “play” with our phones, answer email messages and text, and generally wind down for the night.

Today is an uncomfortable day here in the bush. The temperature is only 80F, 27C, but the humidity is currently at 76%, making the dew point 72, which at 65 is considered tropical. This is sweating weather. The temperature will continue to rise throughout the day, but usually when it does, the humidity may go down along with the dew point. If the sun were out, it would “burn off” some humidity.

Zebras are on a mission to get fed!

We can only imagine how uncomfortable this is for the animals, with many having furry coats. We see the warthogs visiting with mud all over them. They cool off in mudholes they find in the park. But, the zebras, antelopes, wildebeests, and others can only hide in the shade to stay cool and drink water from pools, water holes, and in our case, the birdbath, which we keep filled with fresh water each day.

Gee…I don’t want to sound like we are miserable today. We are not. My biggest disappointment is that we don’t have many visitors this morning. The weekend tourists have left, and hopefully, the animals will stop by soon. I hadn’t seen Norman for two days, a rarity, until yesterday afternoon. I gave him, Nina, and Noah, a big bowl of “Norman’s Lunch,” which they all enjoyed while hanging around for hours. This morning, we’ve only seen duikers Derek and his friend Dion, but not Delilah.

Once they all start coming around, we are both so happy to see them that we forget about annoying issues and revel in the wonders of the bush. For the past two days, my head is feeling a little better. I am hopeful.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, November 7, 2021:

Spikey has been playing in the mud! Too cute for words! For more photos, please click here.

Indescribable humidity today…A story from long ago…More Kruger photos..

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Waterbucks are beautiful animals. Males typically weigh 198–262 kg (437–578 lb) and females 161–214 kg (355–472 lb). Their coat color varies from brown to grey. The long, spiral horns, …

It was June, 55 years ago, that I recall being as sweaty as I am today. I was 18 years old. I was married to my first husband, Steve, three months pregnant with my first son, suffering from severe “morning sickness, day and night.” We had moved from Indio, California, to Kansas City, Missouri, and we were staying with friends of his at their home in the city until we found an apartment.

It was only about 90F, 32C, but the humidity was so unbearable, it was hard to breathe. The friends had no air conditioning or even fans in their house. They had a six-month-old baby in a crib in the room where we slept in a single bed. Steve was very tall and took up the entire bed. I chose to sleep in a chair.

During the night, in the sweltering heat, the couple had a huge fight, actually a screaming match, and they both left the house, leaving us alone with the baby, never returning until 10 am the next day. Of course, the baby woke up screaming when they stormed out the door.

It’s unusual to see waterbucks lying in the grass unless close to a river or body of water.

I spent the entire night trying to quiet the baby by rocking him, changing his diaper, and giving him the last bottle of milk I found in the fridge. In no time, the bottle was empty, and there was nothing to replace it but tap water that I boiled and cooled while rocking the screaming baby in my arms. My husband Steve was passed out, so I got no help from him.

It was so humid, my clothes stuck to me. Nausea came and went in waves, and there wasn’t a cracker to be found in the cupboard or any other food for that matter. It was a miserable night, and as you can see, I remember that night like it was yesterday.

When Steve awoke at 9:30, and the couple hadn’t returned, I told him we were leaving that day as soon as they returned. We had to find an apartment immediately after less than 24 hours in their house. He wasn’t interested in leaving. He told me to see a place that day if I wanted it so badly and to take the car, which was hooked up to a U-Haul trailer. I asked him to unhook the trailer. He refused.

Such pretty animals. The waterbuck is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is placed in the genus Kobus of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. Its 13 subspecies are grouped under two varieties: the common or ellipsiprymnus waterbuck and the defassa waterbuck

When the couple returned, I left, driving the old beater car hooked to a U-Haul trailer to buy a newspaper and a map. I had no idea how to back up a trailer at 18 years old, back in 1966, but somehow I figured it out and found a phone booth and began making appointments to look at apartments.

While driving downtown through a rough neighborhood, I heard sirens go off. Growing up in California, I’d never heard such sirens. I pulled into a great parking spot, got out of the car, and asked a man who was running in the street what the sirens meant. He said it was a tornado warning, and I’d better take cover immediately. It was heading toward downtown Kansas City.

The closest shelter I could find was a meat market. The store owner let me take cover in a dark corner with him, away from the glass meat counters and windows. The tornado passed over our heads, stirring up debris from all over the street but didn’t touch down where we were. I was shaking like a leaf and terrified.

Zebras at a distance.

Once it was safe, I thanked the butcher and headed back to the car, grateful it was intact along with the trailer containing everything we owned. Still hot and sweaty, I became all the more determined to find a place to live.

By 6:00 pm, 1800 hrs, we were in the process of moving into a clean, roomy apartment across the street from a Montgomery Wards store. A month later, I got a job there as a “saleslady” (the term used in those days) but got fired when I started to “show” at seven months. At eight months pregnant, we moved back to California, where my first son, Richard, was born on St. Partick’s Day in 1967. My second son was born two years later.

What I remember the most about that awful night and the following day was the humidity. I’d forgotten all about this story for many years but was reminded this morning in the humidity, with my clothes sticking to me and sweat pouring down the back of my neck.

Zoom in to see the hippo at a distance.

That was my life then, and this is my life now. I can take the heat and the humidity. I have a wonderful life, feeling loved and fulfilled in more ways than I can count. In a way, I suppose, adversity not only makes us stronger but also makes us grateful. and more appreciative for what we have.

It’s hot. It’s humid, TIA (this is Africa), and we are grateful to be here.

May you and yours be well.

Photo from one year ago today, November 30, 2020:

This photo was posted one year ago while in lockdown in a hotel in Mumbai, India, on day #252. A beam of light reflected off the camera at sunset on the river. For more photos, please click here.

Scorching heat… Scenes in Henderson, Nevada… Sweet photo from one year ago in Cambodia…

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Massive homes overlooking Las Vegas, located in Henderson, may easily be valued in the $10,000,000 or more range.

By the time I took my sister’s dog Owen for a walk in the 108F (42C) heat, plastic baggie in hand, I was sweating up a storm. However, the ultra-dry heat evaporated the sweat on my clothes in a matter of seconds. 

Many homes are nestled into the man-made terraces to offer good views of the Las Vegas Strip from afar.

A few days ago, I laid out a nightdress I’d laundered to dry on a chaise lounge by the pool, and within 15 minutes, it was scorched. Other than the time we spent in the Middle East in Egypt, Dubai, Jordan, Morocco, and the United Arabic Emirates, we haven’t experienced much dry heat in our travels.

Climate data for Henderson, Nevada
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °F (°C) 75
(24)		 86
(30)		 91
(33)		 97
(36)		 111
(44)		 114
(46)		 117
(47)		 112
(44)		 110
(43)		 100
(38)		 90
(32)		 78
(26)		 117
(47)
Average high °F (°C) 54
(12)		 59
(15)		 67
(19)		 75
(24)		 85
(29)		 95
(35)		 101
(38)		 99
(37)		 91
(33)		 78
(26)		 64
(18)		 54
(12)		 76.8
(24.8)
Average low °F (°C) 41
(5)		 44
(7)		 49
(9)		 56
(13)		 65
(18)		 74
(23)		 79
(26)		 78
(26)		 71
(22)		 60
(16)		 48
(9)		 40
(4)		 58.8
(14.8)
Record low °F (°C) 11
(−12)		 12
(−11)		 25
(−4)		 31
(−1)		 37
(3)		 41
(5)		 56
(13)		 59
(15)		 43
(6)		 30
(−1)		 4
(−16)		 9
(−13)		 4
(−16)
Average precipitation inches (mm) 0.70
(17.8)		 0.96
(24.4)		 0.57
(14.5)		 0.23
(5.8)		 0.11
(2.8)		 0.11
(2.8)		 0.46
(11.7)		 0.72
(18.3)		 0.42
(10.7)		 0.36
(9.1)		 0.49
(12.4)		 0.60
(15.2)		 5.73
(145.5)

As we’ve often mentioned, humidity is the toughest to endure of all non-storm-related weather conditions. It wears out everything we own from the zippers on our luggage, leather products and wreaks havoc with our digital equipment, especially cameras and smartphones. It’s no wonder we often need to replace these items.

Sure, we chose to seek out warmer climates, and in doing so, one can hardly avoid humidity which often goes hand and hand. Without a doubt, humidity is the most difficult to physically endure, especially in locations where we’ve had either no AC or limited AC, for example, only in the bedrooms.

We were surprised to see some grassy areas, which required a lot of watering.

In many hot and humid locations, we’ve had only a fan over the bed, in which most cases seem to move too slowly to be of many benefits. Also, when there’s mosquito netting encasing the bed, the fan benefits are limited, seeming unable to penetrate the fabric of the net actually to provide any relief.

Here in Henderson, Nevada, the heat is constant and relentless during the long summer months. At 7:00 am this morning, the temperature was already well in the 90F’s (32C). Now, as I write, at 8:50 am, it’s already 97F (36C) with an expected high today of 111F (44C).

The entrance to many high-end developments incorporates the utmost of landscaping to attract new buyers and maintain a level of appeal for the existing homeowners.

Yesterday, when I returned from visiting Susan and after a stop at Smith’s market for a few grocery items, I almost burned my finger pressing the keys on the metal keypad when entering the code to access the gated neighborhood.

Terracing under construction in Henderson.

On the short drive from Smith’s to Richard’s home, I thought about my groceries in the trunk. I remember grocery shopping in Minnesota in the cold of winter, wondering if my food would make it home in the -20F (or lower) without freezing.  

Many new homes back up to the hills and mountains.

In our days of eating bread, I easily recall a loaf of bread being nearly frozen when I reached home. Yesterday, I wondered if anything would spoil in the 15 minutes it took me to get back to Richard’s house. 

Foolish me; nothing would spoil in that short a trip. However, a shopper should be mindful of not making any extra stops on the way home after grocery shopping in these hot climates. Bacteria could easily manifest on a package of chicken or ground beef if one stopped at Walgreens pharmacy and got distracted for a few minutes.

Most homes are built with stucco exteriors and tile roofs that appear to withstand extreme heat.

As we drive around the area exploring our surroundings, we’re amazed how so many manage to live in such a climate in the summer. In the winters, it’s often cool enough here to wear a warm jacket. Obviously, as we’ve shown here over this past almost five years, we decided against it in 2012.

As we continue on our many year’s long world journey in only 16 days, heading to the tropical climate of Costa Rica, where the average high is 85F (29C) with humidity around 70%, it will feel normal to us and most likely, even with the moist air, certainly feel cooler than here in the middle of summer in the Nevada desert.

Las Vegas/Handerson doesn’t have a historic building since it didn’t begin to attract a population of any significance until the 1950s.

Today, we plan to try out Richard’s pool for the first time, now that we’re a little acclimated to being outdoors. Perhaps, we’ll even get a little dose of Vitamin D!

Wherever you may be this season, enjoy your days and nights to the fullest.

Photo from one year ago today, July 15, 2016:

When we visited an orphanage in Cambodia, this young girl’s smile took our breath away. For more photos, please click here.