At long last, the intense heat and humidity of summer have passed, and we are now in the delightful season of fall. The cooler days and evenings are a welcome respite from the furnace-like temperatures of January, February, and March, and their accompanying stickiness. When we arrived in Richards Bay in September, we were warned about the brutal heat and humidity that would soon be coming. We waited and waited and then waited some more. Finally, after Christmas, we decided that the long awaited barrage of heat and humidity was more folklore than anything else. In fact, we almost convinced ourselves that we had already experienced the worst of the weather and were pleased to have done so without too much discomfort. But once January and February arrived and then March, we better understood what the local residents had been telling us all along: it was hot, it was sticky, and, at times, it was miserable. It brought back memories of sweltering summers in Chicago and lying in bed at night tossing, turning, and sweating. My memories of Chicago summers are tempered, however, by the fact that my father eventually installed central air conditioning, and the days of sweating nights were over. Here, we have no such relief. Whole-house air conditioning is rare, and the voracious mosquitoes that appear after sunset prevent the opening of windows unless one wants to trade off heat and sweat for non-stop itching! We will enjoy cooler temperatures for now and come December, will begin preparing for the heat and humidity and mosquitoes we now know will surely come again.