Fade to Persimmon

[wayfaringwordhack]

The tide has turned, taking the red from my sea. The scarlet has faded to persimmon and apricot. At least it has on the flame tree that had the orange cast*, as I pointed out in this post. You can see the color difference better on the bottom left photo of this series.

In truth, I took these photos some days ago. Now there is no more sea, just a few straggling, shriveled flowers, trying to hang on in the face of punishing temperatures and furnace-hot winds (The other day we had 51℃ [123.8℉] and today it is 40℃ [104℉]). Now the trees look like this:

And yes, that is the color of the sky, and not because it is sunset. Vive l'air pur de Caire!

I think next year, we will plan our vacation time to coincide with summer here. I think Cairo in summertime is going to be very like Paris in August:  Everyone who can leave leaves.

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*When the trees were at their best, I preferred the deeper red one, but its flowers, instead of fading, simply shrivel and die, while the vermillion blossoms seem to have a longer lifespan.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

How can people even live if it gets to 128 F :-(

Seriously... I can't imagine it. How do those who *can't* flee stay alive?

.... and now I want to eat a persimmon. Mmmmm. They have them in Japan.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

And how much harder it is to live when the power goes out during such heat spells. "Goes out" make it sound like an accident, but I'm talking about planned power cuts. Everyone is very thankful to Morsi for those, let me tell you.

On the 123.8 degree day, our little family took refuge in a shopping center--guaranteed electricity and cooling--but a friend of ours stayed home with her little girl and had to cope with 5 rolling black-outs. When we got home, our power was out, too, so I'm glad we spent most of the day elsewhere.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

My volunteer information packet tells me that Ainaro (the town in East Timor where I'll be) has electricity pretty much all the time now--an improvement from before, and, apparently, an improvement over lots of countries that are supposedly more developed!

What about beggars and street people, people who live without electricity? Do they go into the shopping centers too?

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

What about beggars and street people, people who live without electricity? Do they go into the shopping centers too?

I don't know. I didn't see any. But I know that there are water stations all over the city, so that people can drink (they are out and supplied year-round). I plan on doing a picture post about them.

[88greenthumb.livejournal.com]

I also love that persimmon & apricot color...and fruits, for that matter.

I echo F's comment on how people can live in 51C temps! My friends in India told me the other day it was 47C and, even if they are used to it, they were suffering. One friend had to drive 200 plus kilometers that day and the engine was overheating, the air conditioning was useless, & everyone in the car was sweating & wilting! :( My friend's family had to suffer being bitten by mosquitoes to sleep several nights up in their rooftop balcony where it was a bit cooler.

"Vive l'air pur de Caire!" I can say this of New Delhi, as well. :(

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Ugh, mosquitos. A pox on them all...but not a pox transmittable to humankind. :P

[clarentine]

People have lived like that, with heat like that, for centuries. I don't comprehend how people could have survived, for instance, in the New Orleans of the early 1700s, but they demonstrably did (in their fine heavy clothes and all!).

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

People were smarter in the past, too. Well, rather they were forced to use natural solutions, let us say, like building with high ceilings to keep rooms cooler. Now people trust in electricity...

And I'm often grateful that we don't have these temps with Mayotte's humidity. I would be a puddle right now.

[melinda-goodin.livejournal.com]

Urgh. 51C? Thank god it never gets that hot here. Then again, I bet they don't have bushfires...
I visited Cairo for a few days, but it was during Ramadan and cooler. The air was pretty polluted even 20 years ago.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

This year, Ramadan falls in July. It is going to be rough. :(

And no bush fires, there being no bushes to burn since Moses' day, me thinks. Seriously, it is so desolate here...