Ice on the Ground

It is cold now, a cold that my family, the oldest members of which are mid-60s, claim to never have seen the likes of previous. My family blames me for bringing it with me from America. Yesterday was -1 C at 1pm, an insane temperature here in Damascus, where supposedly the temperature only dips below freezing at night for a week or two total. It is now even colder at night. Riyadh hit a low of -5C yesterday. There was snow in Baghdad. There is ice on the ground here: frozen water! The rarity of this should be evident in the Arabic language itself, while Inuit are said to have something like 40 words for snow, Arabic has one word for both snow and ice.

Before you scoff and stare out your window in Michigan, New York, or any more northern clime at the foot of snow and the thermometer reading -10, you should know that the cold in Damascus is just so much colder. There is no central heating, so instead family members crowd around sobias (gas burning little stove-things) or sleepers try to position the electric space heater close enough to the bed to warm them a bit during the night, but not so close as to set the blankets on fire (so far so good). This is the case in many apartments, where there is only one sobia so everyone gathers together. If you want to hang out in another, sobia-less room, you had better bring some booze or huddle umcomfortably close to your friends.

The cold is even worse in beyt arabis, such as my house. There is no roof, just rooms off a central courtyard, so when I walk in the front door and close it behind me I am still outside. The kitchen too is essentially outside, which means I brush my teeth wearing gloves. The cruelest part is the shower: I must wake up an hour early to turn on the water heater, then an hour later, after the nice, warm shower, I have to get from the bathroom back to my room, walking outside.

My room is also so cold in the morning, leaving those sheets is like leaving the womb every single morning, it makes me want to cry. I don't usually leave the space heater on since I am understandably scared of more fires, I don't really have blankets to spare.