Gasping for Air (Conditioning)
(Shenzhen, China) -- I'm not sure what they were waiting for exactly. But the managers of my apartment complex finally opened the pool the other day.
We're in a "subtropical climate," meaning it's "hot as hell" even before you factor in the humidity, which must hover around 99% most days until Mother Nature finally wrings-out the atmosphere, as heavy as a used wash cloth. And it's been this way since I arrived in mid-May.
Yet in China, everything must be done according to an official schedule. It doesn't matter that it's been "summer" here for a long time. They're not opening the pool until we're close enough to the summer solstice to satisfy the person in charge. Apparently we recently got close enough. So the pool's open if you'd like to take a dip --- except it's not free, even if you live here.
I'm told it'll cost you 15RMB per hour. That's about $2.41.
I was close to jumping in these past few days. I woke-up Saturday morning to puny air conditioning. What actually caught my attention was that I got really hot while ironing a shirt and didn't get cool even after turning-off the iron.
"Maybe I've hit the wrong button on this remote," I thought, fumbling around, pushing buttons marked only with those beautiful Mandarin characters. What they mean, I haven't the faintest idea.
But faint I was about to do, I feared, as the apartment became unbearably hot then and throughout the next day.
Call me a wimp. Call me a privileged American. But my DNA just isn't made for this heat. My people came from Sweden. My body starts sweating when the air gets above 72.
Thank goodness I have a responsible landlord. He came yesterday from Hong Kong to assess the situation for himself. I think maybe he thought I'd hit the wrong Mandarin-labeled buttons, too. But unfortunately it was way more complicated than that.
Something was wrong with the air compressor. Not only that, it's located one floor above my apartment. So the maintenance man needed to find someone home to fix it.
My landlord got in touch with the lady who lives above me. However, she was on her way to the airport and wouldn't be back in town for a week.
He then knocked on someone else's door upstairs.
"But the tenant is resistant to open the door," he reported back.
My landlord went to an appliance store and purchased a new air conditioner, certain that the old one had died. He said it would be at least two days before the store would deliver it. Then it would take another three or four days for a repairman to be assigned to install it.
It wouldn't be an easy job, either. Because they couldn't access the apartments above mine, someone would have to lower the repairman from the rooftop of this high-rise down into a shaft, where he'd have to drop several floors to install the new compressor.
Simple things in China take time. I was bracing for something like this to take forever.
I didn't even bother taking a shower when I woke-up this morning, as my eyes burned from the sweaty fingers rubbing them. I knew I'd no more than get out of the bathroom than I'd start stinking again.
It really is that hot, the sweat that instantaneous.
But today a miracle happened. Two groups of people didn't follow the official schedule. Just after lunch, two deliverymen came with the new air conditioner and compressor from the store. Then around 3:30 this afternoon, a man with a harness around his chest and stomach knocked on my door.
I motioned toward the new boxes. He wasn't interested. He walked toward the old air conditioner, still in place in the wall, and motioned for me not to plug it in. I said OK. He left.
Soon, I heard noises above my apartment. Someone must have lowered him in!
He came back, turned-on the old AC unit and felt for the stream of air.
He went upstairs again. I heard more noises. And a few minutes later, he re-appeared at my door.
He powered-on the old air conditioner and motioned for me to come over and feel. It was cool again!
Unable to communicate verbally, we sat here like the strangers we are while he made sure the AC wouldn't shut down. Judging by his voice and smile as he made his necessary phone calls, I think he was quite proud of himself.
Thanks to him --- and undoubtedly his boss --- by not following the usual schedule, they made a huge difference in someone's life. I'm no longer feeling nauseous or faint.
I'm no longer gasping for air.
Posted June 17, 2014 at 8:51 p.m. China time.
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