Harmatten

OK, there are times, even when you’re old and wise, even when you’ve been right most of your life, when you have to face up to facts that prove you wrong – as hard as that may be.  Well, that time has come, for me.

You see I have been telling you about all the dust that is here in Niger, moaning and groaning about the fact you wipe a table once and it needs it again a couple of hours later.  Complaining about shoes that have turned orange permanently.  Whining about the orange dust on the ground, on the roads, in the air and everywhere turning the sky orange.

Well if truth be told, that’s not really dust.  It may look like dust, it may kick up like dust, and it may taste like dust, but it isn’t really dust.  You don’t get dust in Niger until Harmatten.  Harmatten is dust.  Harmatten dust starts up in the Sahara and blows south into Niger.  It usually comes toward the end of January, signaling an end to the cool season, and ends in February with the start of the hot season.  It’s the end of January and Harmatten has come to Niamey. 

It started last week when I commented to Sally about the clouds that seemed to have come in.  We haven’t had clouds here for months.  Then you notice, it is not really clouds it is a dense haze that has blotted out the sun.  It sneaks up on you.  At first it is kind of nice not to have the hot sun beating down on you.  You don’t really see the difference unless you look at something in the distance and then you realize there is no distance.  You can’t see it because it looks like fog only there is no moisture involved in any manner.  It is not visible like the dust from a passing car it is just there in the air, in your lungs, and like fog, you can’t get away from it.

Taken directly into the sun.

Harmatten season is a time of year, usually November to mid March, where dry and dusty West African Trade Winds, known as the Harmatten, blow through the Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea.  

Harmatten Area

You don’t have dust in Niger until you have Harmatten.  I took a picture from the balcony of the main building on the center last December and then took another yesterday.  I think they give you a picture of Harmatten.

December

Same view, different zoom

Same view, different day.  No sun at all.

One of the interesting aspects of Harmatten is that it doesn’t feel bad up close.  It is only seen in the distance so you don’t really feel it when you breathe.  Yet, you know it is there and that it is going into your body day and night.  It makes me wonder if there is a big pile of mud forming in the bottom of my lungs.  Who knows?

There, I’ve admitted my error-filled ways.  I didn’t know dust but I’m learning.  Fortunately this won’t last because the hot season is coming.  I think the phrase “Out of the pan and into the fire” has some relevance here.