Why do people always end up talking about the weather? Maybe because its fickle tendencies have the power to effortlessly knock us from our omnipotence with just the slightest deviation.

In my case, I’m talking about how the Dakar weather patterns increase my housekeeping chores.

The dust in the air can dramatically change the landscape here. Check these pics out- you’d think I was messing with a filter on my camera or something:

 

Photo taken from my Ivory Tower, March 2010

April 2010. Looks like a scene from a lousy 1970s movie

Now check these two out, taken from the same place two days ago. I distinctly remember looking out the window of the embassy office on Friday and saying “What in the heck is going on?”  

May 2010- “C’est la poussière“

It wasn’t nearly so bad today, but yesterday as I was rolling out to participate in a 5K race (with a mild headache and scratchy throat), I stopped to say bonjour to Mr. Sy, my building superintendent. I asked him if he could explain to me the phenomenon behind the seemingly whitewashed landscape (in French, it was more me saying: “C’est quoi dans l’air?”). As only the French language can allow, he poetically described how it was winds originating in Spain, coming down past Morocco and Mauritania and now in Dakar. They will continue to move southwards shortly.

I didn’t do nearly as a good a job as he did in explaining this, but the pictures definitely give you an idea. 

The ocean, the African Renaissance Monument and the sun are all practically erased from view as this particulate does a fantastic job of infiltrating my house and coating the floors. I cleaned again today but I don’t think that it will make that big of a difference. In a day or so, if these crazy winds stay put, I’ll have another protective coat of dust over my floors.

I wonder what my lungs look like!