Harmattan Reprieve

Thursday March 18th, the sky grew all white again, hazey so that you couldn't see the mountains clearly, as Harmattan dust rolled in. Strange, as usually this is in January, February, but one could say that weather here is all scrambled up this year, with the hot season arriving a month early and then we actually had a rainstorm Tuesday the 16th! The first time ever (at least in peoples memories) having rain in March in Garoua! Anyway the Harmattan came again Thursday, a storm somewhere in the Sahara kicking up dust, and this dust blowing with the wind and settling all over West/Central Africa. Even in the South of Cameroon, I think, they had fuzy skies. It's really something, covering everything slowly, over the course of a week with a coating of white dust, which makes my house look like it's been unlived in for a year. I'm waiting to clean it until it actually finishes, although it looks like its starting to lift. On the worst days I couldn't see the mountains right behind my house, or for that matter trees 500 meters away. Attached is a video of what it looks like, as well as my effort to demonstrate the amount of dust settling on all the plants, turning them all white! Everything grey, grey, grey. The beautiful thing is that we are granted a reprieve of the heat! The suns heat doesn't make its way through the dust either, so the temperatures for one week were much cooler, which was lovely, including 72 degree mornings!

the green leaves are those I wiped off the dust from. The others are those covered with dust!

View from behind my house in my latrine area

Hot Season

the futility of candles in hot season

So all my chocolate was officially melted in my house. Every single bar, sent in love from many care packages, while contained in its wrapper, was liquid, and as I shifted them back and forth like a seesaw, the chocolate inside ran from one side to the other. So now I had a predicament. How to I get the chocolate to Garoua, where it could rest safely in the freezer, on a crowded taxi car where people and goats and chickens are all jostled in together elbow to elbow to hoof? Finally, I decided to take the risk, taking a car to Jessie's in Sanguere Paul, carrying the bag of chocolate bars carefully balanced so as not to disturb the equilibrium. We arrived there safely. And then from her place on to Garoua by moto, much less precarious, each time getting on and off, carrying the precious cargo in both hands! Delightfully I arrived at the office with no mishaps, all the bars still liquidly intact in their wrappers, and happily deposited in the freezer with a sweet note saying "Elizabeth's chocolate, do not eat!"

Good things about hot season

--Clothes drying in 30 minutes, washed dishes in 10

--Only having to pee every now and then

--Because you can't really do anything from 10-4pm it forces you to rest your body, lying around in your house most of the day. (hmm this one not working out too well lately...)

--Enjoying hot water to drink

--Not having to heat up water for baths

--The sweat on you then cooling you off when a breeze comes through. You almost feel cold!

this is the sweat that beaded up on my arm after I ate a warm meal at lunchtime. Also streaming down my face, a photo a took, and decided would be more prudent to leave off the blog for pride's sake!

Currently Reading....

Right now I'm reading Mountains beyond Mountains, the story of Paul Farmer, doctor in Haiti and founder of PIH, Partners in Health. I've been wanting to read it for years, since it is one of my sister's favorite book, and she brought it to me when she came to visit. I remember that on of the YWAM leaders when I was in England and S. Africa said they tried to read a biography of a Christian missionary or spiritual leader every year (or maybe every six months), because it's inspirational and helps encourage you in the work your doing, get back to your roots and the larger picture as well. It's very good advice. I feel similarly reading books like these (last month I read Three Cups of Tea). While I think I would enjoy them and be inspired by them if I were reading them back home, it's all the more strong and meaningful (perhaps more alive) reading them here, doing what we're doing. It does help inspire and also encourage you to continue on in this work, work of development or "helping others", schools, health, environment. It's helpful to hear their stories, to learn about their struggles and mostly their triumphs and successes after years of work in places many people don't go, or wouldn't stick it out in. And it really is a good thing for me to be reading these books, egging me on to be a better person, to serve people here better, to aspire for more selflessness, more generosity, more drive, vision, and passion, especially comparing oneself (and one's mentality) to Paul Farmer or Greg Mortenson.