Part TWO- Keeping Warm During Third-World Winters (Part TWO, of a THREE-Part Series)

This is the second post in a two-part series about keeping warm in the winter when indoor heat is either non-existant, or insufficient.  See Part I about Subtropical Winters In the Third World here.

I recommend a four-pronged approach, preferably organized long before cold weather sets in.

First, run (don’t walk) to wherever you think you can buy some hot water bottles. In locales where electricity is too expensive to use space heaters every day/night, or where the only space heaters available are propane (or wood-burning) in a closed space necessitating leaving doors/windows open (to guard against asphyxiation), hot water bottles can be a real life-saver.  If you wait until the cold weather arrives, particularly in third-world countries, the few hot water bottles that were available will be long gone. If you see it, buy it – even in the middle of summer, as you may not see it again. Don’t just buy one. Buy at least two for every member of your household. Two bottles can be put inside each sleeping place for each family member (like old fashioned bed warmers). Put one at chest level and the other at foot level, and leave them there for ten or fifteen minutes before climbing into bed.

Second, get some very heavy blankets which you can use inside in the family/TV room, during the day or evening, while sitting on couches. Keep a hot water bottle under your stockinged feet, and another at stomach level under the blankets.   For the bed, you will need three very heavy blankets.   If you have a choice,  go for the heavy cotton blankets (about 1 cm thick), over the heavy acrylic blankets.

This is my cat sitting on top of ONE thick (folded) acrylic blanket of the type we use in the third world, where there is no indoor heat. (At least three of these are needed, in addition to hot water bottles.)

The cotton blankets  are less expensive, and don’t slip against each other and off the bed so easily as the acrylic ones constantly do.  Have three heavy blankets on your bed, and dress warmly. If you are too cold in bed, wear an acrylic hat and gloves while sleeping;  long underwear, or two layers of nightclothes – such as a pajama top over a nightgown, (or artic-weight long-underwear under regular PJ’s;   and one or two pairs of  socks.

Third, wear warm  warm clothes indoors, in layers. Think of how you might dress for skiing, and dress that way indoors, but even more so. The problem with people coming from America is that most of the silk long underwear sold there is entirely insufficient.  It took me about three years to figure out what is obvious to the locals – so obvious, that my own husband never thought to explain it to me!  When I figured it out, he asked, “Didn’t you know that?”‘

In your locale, you may find, if you ask the locals what they wear, that their long underwear is made out of synthetic sweater-type knitted material, and about the thickness of a knit sweater. It is actually warmer than western thermal-weight underwear.  If you are unable to find that I recommend the heaviest weight thermal underwear for skiing that you can order over the internet. (Another tip: to save on importation duty, have things sent to someone you know in your home country who can wash the things, run them through the dryer, and throw them messily into a box, so they look old and used.)

Men, take note how my North African  husband dresses on winter mornings: flannel boxer shorts under heavy thermal underwear from L.L. Bean, followed by two or three pairs of socks on TOP of the thermal underwear – this makes it easy to put on jeans or dress pants afterward. On top he wears an undershirt, then a turtleneck, followed by a heavy cotton shirt, and then either a heavy wool sweater and sometimes a leather jacket lined with heavy woolen fleece.

With a warm scarf around the neck, this is good for sitting still and working at a desk during our indoor mid-winter conditions, which are sometimes 8°C (45°F).

If you have children, make sure your children wear at least three layers of shirts to school, and two layers of trousers and long underwear or PJ’s, and two pairs of socks. They also need a heavy sweater and/or jacket. The key is that layers can be removed if it gets warmer during the middle of the day, and can be put back on later in the afternoon/evening.

Ladies, take note how I finally came up with a decent-looking work outfit which is sufficiently warm. I had two outfits made by a tailor (very reasonable in third-world countries). They both consist of a floor-length skirt (so that I can wear long thermal underwear underneath, with two pairs of socks on top, and none of it will show), and matching/contrasting jacket, both of elegant material. Under the jacket I wear a heavy, sleeveless, cotton summer shirt, followed by a turtleneck, and the jacket on top. If it is really cold, I wear a wool sweater between the turtleneck and jacket (made loose enough to accommodate).

Ladies, if you need to have anything made, try to get to the tailor no later that early November, so that you will have your clothes by the cold of December.

Now I realize where ladies’ clothes of yesteryear came from.  Dresses came to the floor so that that something for warmth could be worn completely covering the legs, yet not be seen (as trousers for women were unacceptable in those days).

Years ago, I used to wonder at the poem The Night Before Christmas (written in 1822), why anyone would wear a hat or kerchief to bed–now I know!  In 1822 there was no indoor heating (and where I live now we don’t even have fireplaces in most houses).

Fourth,  reduce the drafts and cold-air seepages into your house.  If you have handmade casement windows that open inward (very common in the third world), this may help.

Go to a hardware-type shop, and you may be able to buy strips of sponge, rolled up, with one sticky side covered with paper (like band-aids are).  They will be sold  in about two-meter strips. Cut them to the length of your window spaces (most third-world countries have hand-made casement windows that don’t fit the frames exactly, letting in a lot of cold air, and dust.) You can close up these leaky air spaces, keeping your place a lot warmer.

Lowest windows are "garden level"

If you have the chance to live in a garden-level apartment (halfway below ground level, where you still have windows above ground, but not so low as a basement), by all means take it! Your place will stay about 5 degrees C (10 degrees F) warmer in winter, and about 5 degrees C (10 degrees F) cooler in summer.

Close up your under door spaces by getting old strips of carpeting (or buying one meter of carpeting and cutting it up) and sticking two or three of them together.

Snake-style "Draft Excluder"

Alternatively, you can make “snakes” filled with sand that are sewn together, and can be pushed up against the under-door spaces where the non-existent weather-stripping should be.

Good luck!  In Part Three,  I will explain about the dangers of chilblanes, a dangerous and extremely painful condition that is common in the third world, but which has now become rare in the first world due to the prevalence of central heating.  (If you follow the suggestions I’ve given here, this will help prevent the condition.)

Expat 21

Other Posts by ME:

Subtropical Winters In the Third World

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