Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

It’s cold! I left the states almost a week ago, and it was sunny and warm. Days lasted for 14 hours, the temperature ranged from 60 degrees to over 80, and T-shirts were the uniform of the season.

A bit of a shock then to return to Paraguay, which is in full winter mode. I’m wearing a hoodie, a sweatshirt, a jacket, scarf, and wool cap as I write this.

What is winter like? Winter is short, between six weeks and two months, but it’s a dreary, damp couple of months. There are no heated buildings in my site, unlike the states – where the nearest café and hot cocoa, or heated bus, or car is just a few steps away. It is a constant chill that makes one feel like he'll never be warm again.

There’s no insulation, and in my case, no hot showers! Brr. When it starts getting chilly, I heat up four or five liters of water in my electric kettle and dump it in the black bucket that I use to wash myself, my dishes and my clothes. Then I hurry over to my outdoor bathroom, and sprint through a two-minute bucket bath, steam filling the small concrete cell. Bath finished, I whip back to my room, dive into my sleeping bag, and shiver.

Of course, this is all so much nicer than last year, when I took cold bucket baths (because you know, that’s what Paraguayans do). Antonio – whom I was living with at the time – told me, “You have to take them cold, because you will feel warmer after.”

He had a point. After a two-minute, yelp-inducing, cold shower in his house, I did feel more immune to the winter chill. But oh, those two minutes!

I’m sticking with my hot bucket baths.