The dust before the storm.

Every year is more of the same. After months of cloudless skies, one by one they start to appear on the horizon. Will they have rain or will they just provide some minor relief from the scorching sun?

In America, predicting the weather is a part of everyday life. There are whole TV stations and websites dedicated to the prediction and documentation of weather events.  I have never been the type to look up the weather unless there is something important happening  (like to see if the mountain passes are closed due to snow, or is the rain-delayed sportscast going to resume soon). I think this is a reaction to my father's addiction to the weather channel. Or maybe it is because I never really minded being inconvenienced by rain, hot, cold, or snowy days. I couldn't do anything about it anyway.

This place has relatively stable weather patterns. It's sunny and over 95 degrees almost every day, but we do experience a couple dozen thunder storms a year during rainy season. Those storms can have extreme winds that are known to topple trees and blow down walls and crops.  Each storm is unique and we never know what is coming until it is here. Each time the clouds build on the horizon, we pray that the storm will bring rain and not too much destructive wind and dust.

Storms follows a similar pattern almost every time. Clouds appear, the wind picks up, and eventually a wall of dust overruns everything, with everyone huddling in whatever shelter they can find. During most of the year, the dust eventually settles and everyone goes on about their lives. However, this time of year, there is a chance that one of these storms will produce rain- significant rain that floods the ground and cools the air.

This year, the rains started quite late. They were late enough that our church had prayer meetings every evening for a few weeks to pray for rain. In this land, there is never sufficient rain, but even less than usual can be the difference between life and death for many people.

Towards the end of the workday a little while back, I saw the dark storm clouds amassing in the east. They were very dark, which doesn't necessarily mean rain, it may just mean more dust than usual. As I watched the clouds moving slowly, I could clearly see the massive wall of dirt and sand as it made its way across the valley. I knew I wanted to get a picture of it. So, I hopped on my bike and hustled home to get a camera and run to the edge of the property to get a great picture of this spectacular site. Unfortunately the storm was moving way faster than it looked. By the time I got out of my house the storm was upon us. I tried to get some pictures anyway, but walking into a storm with my mouth and eyes full of sand is not as fun as it looks.

You can kind of see the difference between the dust on the right and the clear skies on the left.

This is the view across the air strip and the valley beyond. There is an orange wind sock on the left that is pointed straight out. 

This was the one! The storm that finally brought rain. The next day the fields were full of men planting and tilling. We've had steady rains since then and now the millet sprouts are about 30cm tall. W Although, with the blessing of rain there is also the plague of mosquitoes and the malaria that they will bring. It is always something here. If there is one thing that place has taught me is to learn to be content where ever you are. No matter how perfect or horrible the place is you live, there will always be things to complain and worry about.