I Come From a Place Where We Need No Air Conditioners

Some people have never even seen an air conditioner

Image by triosolution1 from Pixabay

July 3 is Air Conditioning Appreciation Day! I couldn’t live without air conditioning. Could you? Are you a lover or hater of AC? (Lynn L. Alexander)

I come from a small, beautiful village in the hills of Kabale, southwestern Uganda. I was born and raised there until I moved to town, which is only a fifteen-minute drive away, about two years ago.

Let it be my village, my town; we do not need any air conditioning. And if I am right, even if you went around wanting to buy one, you wouldn’t find one anywhere in the stores. The short answer is that we don’t need them.

So my region has one of the coolest climates in Uganda because of its high elevation; it's 1800–2000 m above sea level. Highest temperatures are between 23–25 degrees; it usually doesn't climb to 28 degrees.

At night, it can get to 11–13 degrees, and rarely in the morning it can go between 8–10 degrees. So if you prefer cool, mild weather, my home would be your place.

I like it, and I came to appreciate it even more when I started travelling to Kisumu, Kenya, where temperatures can get between 33–35 degrees or even a little higher. I am always restless when I am there, and that’s when I came to appreciate air conditioning.

A Kenyan working colleague was invited to our vacation Airbnb after the three hectic weeks we had had. She found us in Mombasa after two days, and she had to share my room.

Normally, when we get to the Airbnb, my boss walks into all the rooms and sets the temperatures to the right degrees — something equivalent to the weather back home — I never knew. I always thought he walked in to check for something to complain to the host about just in case, lol. Until he explained after the incident that almost took me out.

By the time I walk in, the temperatures are right, except for the air conditioning buzzing, and I have to take allergy pills for that.

This day I shared a room with a colleague; I woke up in the middle of the night, barely able to breathe, and thought I had gotten a fever. I went to the bathroom to take a cold bath, but it didn’t work. I came downstairs, opened the entrance door, and spent the rest of the early morning in the sitting room.

And here is the thing: because I am not used to air conditioning, when I woke up barely able to breathe, it never occurred to me that it was the air conditioning, even with its annoying buzzing. She had reset it from what our boss had set two days ago to 26 degrees.

They woke up later, and I was not okay. I had a headache and was running a fever. Plans for the day were cancelled, and I had to be taken to the hospital.

We passed by the mall and purchased a fan in case the air conditioning was broken. We got back, and the boss’s son took it up to my room to set it. That’s when he found the air conditioning at 26 degrees

Long story short, my colleague was sorry, but we have never shared a room again.

Lynn L. Alexander, I am an AC hater, but I can’t survive without it when I am in Kenya. As for when I am home, the existence of it doesn’t even occur to me 😊

If I said some people around here have never seen an air conditioner, you would probably be shocked or laugh. It’s not for any other reason. We don’t need them.

Right now, it’s 08:30 pm, and we are at 19 degrees, and you can imagine it's a dry season.

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