Street Entertainment

We've watched the progress on the new road in front of our house since we moved in last November.  It's been fascinating.  Today the excitement was building in the neighborhood!  After all these months of digging out truckloads of sand, building sidewalks, making curbs and drainage ditches-- the word on the street was that tonight they would start pouring the final layer-- the cement.

Sure enough, the crowd was big and the lights were up to pour the concrete in the cooler night temps.  We white folk mosied down to be a part of the excitement as well.  The Chinese, who are building the road, issued rubber boots and gloves to the workers as the cement trucks rolled in. The yelling and cheering began.

They worked all night.  Tom estimated that they got 50 yards completed. Two cement trucks.

When I was walking up to catch a taxi into town this morning I visited with one of the Chinese supervisors who spoke some English.  I asked him if I couldn't put my initials in the cement in front of our house!  He just laughed at me and said, "Madame, this isn't a wall that you can write all over it!"  After all these years in Africa,  I've learned that it never hurts to ask.  (I'll ask again when they are right in front of our house and someone else is in charge!!)

Rainy Day and Yatzee with the Staff Kids

Around 6:30 this morning I heard our night guard calling from the front door saying that another dust storm was quickly approaching.  Since looking out of the windows of our house  means we only see cement walls, we can't see the changes in the weather, so we are thankful for Weatherman Rabiou!  With windows closed we awaited the smell of dust and the sound of the wind.  Instead, after a very minor dusting, we heard the wonderful sound of raindrops on the tin roof.  It poured and poured and we found all the leaks around the windows and doors and kept busy "squeage-ing" out the water from the living room.  After an hour or so the hard rain let up and it rained gently for a couple of more hours.  Wonderful.

We definitely needed our bridge across the raging water in our drainage ditch!  The rain started to wash away our driveway.  

The neighbors were having a high time playing in the water. 

What could be a better activity on a rainy day than playing yatzee with some of our staff kids.  Our director and his wife have 4 boys.  We invited the 3 older boys to come over and play games.   The peanut butter cookies were a big hit and we had many laughs playing together.  Great boys.

The sandstorm is coming!

The churning sky was amazing to watch.  The shades of brown, orange and in the center, a very black core.  

We had invited supper guests and, as they arrived, so did an uninvited guest: a huge wall of dust and sand.  I made sure every window was closed as tightly as possible (not very tight!) and the foam strips were pushed under the huge gaps in the doors.  I quickly turned all the plates upside down on the table, covered the food, grabbed my camera and went outside with the rest to watch this phenomena.  

The wall of clouds came from the north, which according to some, meant no rain would come with it, since the rain comes from the south.  That ended up being true, sad to say.  The clouds  were huge-miles high- and stretched as far as we could see from north to south.  It was a real "doozie".  It moved soooo quickly and people were running to get home in time.  "Grandma" was out trying to corral the family goats, trying to get them home before the blackness arrived.  

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The sky turned yellow, then eerily orange and then, as the full force of the wind and sand hit, the sky went pitch black like midnight.  Crazy.  The electricity went out at the same moment.  I realized it was more than just dust, it was sand!  I had plenty of grit in my mouth and felt the pelting on my face as I ran for cover.  

The electricity was off for hours and the wind blew hard.  Even with our windows and doors closed we could make dust pictures on the floor after a couple of hours.  We waited for the sound of raindrops on the roof, but they never came.  

This morning we awakened to complete stillness but a white hazy dust hanging in the air.  Too much dust in the air to warrant washing the floors today!  I swept but will wait until the dust disappears to wash. 

 I took a picture of our street yesterday morning when all was clear.  

This is what it has looked like all day today: no breeze, just heavy dust.  

P.S.  Lindsay blogged about her experience, just two days ago, as she and a friend walked the mile home from school in a storm like this one.  I can't imagine what that was like.  Five seconds of being stung with that sand was enough facial exfoliation for me!  You can read her blog and see some crazy pictures here:  http://lindsaydorsch.blogspot.com.