In an effort to keep a balance of serious and funny blogs, I’ve decided to write about an everyday issue here in Cambodia. Let’s see if you can guess it…
1 word.
1 syllable.
5 letters.
It plagues the Americans way more than the Cambodians.
It needs to be replenished.
Did you guess it?
That’s right, S-W-E-A-T!
SWEAT. It’s an everyday issue here in Cambodia. Awhile back, I wrote a blog about being “Dressed to Sweat” when I went to an African church service. Remember?
Well, I dress to sweat everyday in Cambodia. The average temperature in April is 95 F with 60% humidity. Yikes! I was laughing to myself about how I classify my clothes- keep in mind I only have 5 t-shirts and 3 pairs of shorts. There is the “clean” pile, the “wear-one-more-time” pile, and the dirty pile. Here is how I determine where clothes go:
“Clean” clothes have just been hand washed and dried on the line. They don’t smell bad but they don’t smell like flowers either. Once a week, my clean pile is complete.
“Wear-one-more-time” clothes have typically been worn for a half-day or a full day. They have been sweat in a little bit but have not been drenched in sweat and therefore can be worn one more time.
Dirty clothes are disgusting. They have been completely drenched in sweat and have turned a different color. They have to be hung to dry from all the sweat before they can be put in the dirty pile. Occasionally, I have to pull a shirt out of the dirty pile and Febreeze it before wearing it again (it’s as gross as it sounds, but I’m just going to sweat in it more…why dirty another shirt?). My workout clothes are always in this pile and have a perma-stench.
Notice the sweat creeping in from the arm pits, about to meet the sweat from my chest…
We sweat so much that we have named the different types of sweat- we thought really hard about these names…
Swace: Sweaty face
Swip: Sweaty lip
Swin: Sweaty chin
Swit: Sweaty pit
Swack: Sweaty back
There’s two more but I think you get the pattern, so I don’t need to explain Swoob or Swass.
It's hard to capture a good Swip, but know there was a lot of Swip and Swace going on in this photo.
No caption needed.
The only reprieve from the heat is if it rains or from my daily bucket shower. I choose to “shower” at the end of the day so I can go to bed as clean as possible. Yesterday was a big day- I washed my hair and shaved my legs. I pretty much felt like a new woman…
It’s hot in Cambodia. I sweat a lot. Actually I sweat all day. But it’s worth it. I’ll continue to sweat so Cambodians have a chance to hear the Good News. They're worth it.
Priceless.
