I hardly ever actually look up the weather forecast here... as it's always hot, humid, and (this time of year) chance of rain.
The WORST was yesterday afternoon when the power was out at school for two hours... meaning no AC!!!
The power had cut out in the morning, which is not unusual and the generator kicks on a minute or two later. ...The generator was then on for most of the rest of the day ...kicked off in early afternoon ...usually this means that the power has come back on ...
...But we waited and waited for the power to come back on and it did not. No power meant no lights, no computers, and no bells to change classes... which was fine. The kicker was no air conditioning.
No AC in HCMC is dangerous.
Everyone was dripping with sweat. Seriously.
The power did then return about half an hour after school ended (most of staff was in a meeting... and the AC was turned on full blast).
THEN... this morning as I walk into the library... the hallway was pretty cool but the library felt like a SAUNA. There was power throughout school but our AC was out. D'OH!
A maintenance guy got it back on... but, come to find out, it was simply blowing air... not cool air. So, once again, I'm sitting in a sauna filled with thousands of books and about 15 students... all of us sweating and attempting to mop ourselves up with Kleenex.
It took 6 maintenance guys and security guards about an hour and a half to get the AC working again. I don't know what the problem was... but I was thankful to have it on!
One month Sarah was late paying her energy bill (which is easy to do since they literally throw the piece of paper into her yard and expect her to find it each month... although it never turns up on the same day of each month...). She had to go to a hostel for the night because it was be too unbearable to sleep without AC or, at least, a fan.
Saigon is one HOT place!
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