It's Too Hot

It’s hot in Phoenix. Everyone knows that. Where is it hotter than southern Arizona? Africa maybe.

Reynolds Institute’s Cynthia Brown was certain that the people at the next table were having no trouble dealing with the heat. “They’re all from Africa. This heat is probably nothing to them.”

So we asked them. We talked to Bongiee Ndakisa from South Africa, Chisenga Muyoya from Zambia, Shole Akinuemi from Nigeria, and Martin Muganzi from Uganda. In each case, they said the heat in Phoenix was unbearable.

The group is a part of 25 other students from Africa who have come to Arizona State University for a six week internship with the Young African Leadership Initiative.

As we were talking with the group of students, the temperature was hovering at 116 degrees. When they were asked how they were coping with the extreme heat, there was a unanimous consensus.

"It is very, very difficult. But as we were told coming in, hydrate, hydrate, and hydrate. So all we can do is to drink a lot of water and try to live with it. But it is too hot," said Ndakisa.

Just as Cynthia's perception about the weather in Africa was incorrect, the students were surprised at the extreme heat in Arizona.

"There is a general perception that the weather in the U.S. is a specific weather. So we have learned that in every African country the weather is different is the same way that in every state in the U.S. the weather is different,"Muyoya said.
We wondered what made the contrast between the weather so expansive. "The difference between the sun we have here and the sun in Lagos is it's not this dry. So you don't get very tired and feel weak and dehydrated," Akinuemi said.
On top of drinking plenty of water, sunscreen is providing some relief. "This is the very first time I have ever had to use sunscreen," Ndakisa said.

Cynthia Brown, Kelly Gastman