Tips For Surviving The Heat Season.

The Heat Season is upon us and, with temperatures daily hovering over 40 Degrees Celsius, we must adopt a practical survival strategy to go through it with our health and sanity intact.

Here are a few tips that will help you along this harsh season:

 1. Avoid stepping into the Sun as much as possible.

But if you must step out into the Sun, use a sunscreen cream, sunshades and an umbrella.

2. Avoid thick, heavy clothes for now. Use light dresses made of cotton or other natural substances. These allow air into your body and, thus, help cool you down, stemming off the possibility of getting those prickly heat rashes that make you feel like your body is on fire!

Synthetic materials do not breath and are, therefore, ventilation-blockers. Clothes made of synthetic materials are definitely non-starters for this harsh season, no matter how trendy they may be. You do not want to "cook" your beautiful skin just for fashion, do you?

3. As much as possible, use white clothes, especially during sunshine hours. Whites repel heat, while keeping you cool. Dark colours, especially black, attract heat, thus, intensifying your discomfort.

This applies to shoes, caps, cars, offices, classrooms and homes. If you can afford everything white, this is the prescribed season to do so.

4. Talking about affordability, this is the prime time to aircondition everywhere, if you can afford it; your home, office, car, etc. If it keeps the tormenting heat and all associated ills at bay, it wont be money wasted, I assure you!

5. If the money available to you is limited and you cannot afford airconditioning, then joyfully make use of the general, ever-reliable rule of thumb for tackling heat and the many ailments associated with it: throw your windows wide open and keep your home and office well ventilated.

Also, make use of your electric fans, whether they be standing or ceiling fans, as often as good old NEPA permits or your pocket can afford to service and power your generating set, that is assumming you have one.

Or you can buy one of those hand-held, muscle-powered fans, whether it is made of plastic or palm frond.

The key to all these, and it is a Master Key, is to keep as aerated and ventillated as possible all through this season of the year.

Now, we can all afford that, cant we?

Or, you can do as we used to do in Hwodi Pare when I was growing up: take your beddings outside and sleep under the natural aircondition. Now, you can afford that too, at least until the Hot Season is over!

6. Whether you sleep outside or inside, avoid crowding. This will help prevent the outbreak and spread of deseases, such as Cerebruspinal Meningitis. You do not want to go there, do you? It is an expensive place to be, not to mention potentially deadly.

7. This is the underpinning rule to surviving the Heat Season with your health and sanity intact: make generous use of water!

Yes, water.
Water, water, water.
Life-giver that doubles during this season as a life-saver

At the foundational level, (and a building is only as strong as its foundation!) drink as much water as you can comfortably hold in. Do not hold back. I assure you you wont get a pot belly before this season is over!

The water will keep your body well hydrated, ready and able to successfy fight any heat-sponsored invasion. If there is anytime you ever need your body to be at its best, its during this season! So, give it water.

Then, at the secondary and superficial level, but equally as important, is the need to keep cool and clean using water.

Shower, oh, my sweet shower! What better time to indulge in you purposefully and generously than now?

The simple use of soap and water over your body, two or three times a day during this season can, not only keep you cool but also, save your life.

The shower is the right place to be this season. So, get to it and stay in it all through this season, so long as it does not distract from your other legitimate pursuits!

Before I go, let me draw your attention to the need to beware of snakes, scorpions and other paste that ordinarily stay out of our way. They too feel the heat and share with us humans the need to cool down and to survive. You are most likely to encounter such uninvited and unwanted guests this time of the year than at any other time.

Take necessary actions to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Now, do not say I did not warn you!

May you and your loved ones survive the Heat Season (and any other harsh season life throws at you) with your confidnce and your sense of humour intact!

It is Agoso Bamaiyi, your friend for a greater Nigeria and the best things of life.