An African Winter

The Harmattan is a dry and dusty wind. It blows south from the Sahara and in January, it’s probably at its peak in Ouaga. On its passage over the desert, it picks up fine dust particles that will cover everything at home within hours. Table tops, mosquito nets, curtains, books, clothes, everything gets a reddish shade from the sand.
Mornings and evenings especially, the heavy amount of dust in the air can severely limit visibility and block the sun for several hours, not unlike the London fog. It gives a nice, soft contour to things... It also makes you cough and sneeze, and wish you had remembered to wear a cheche...
Some people say that men and animals become increasingly irritable when this wind has been blowing for a while. Others that the cool wind brings relief from the oppressive heat… I am not sure about the former, people being always so smiley here, 'yel ka ye', there are no problems, never ever... But the latter is definitely true, it does bring the temperature down, it suffices to look at the woolies, Malika is wrapped in every day… today proudly displaying her green outfit!
And because with Obama president, the US seem closer than ever before, I also heard today that red dust from the desert can be tracked all the way to America…

Looking sheepish...

What was this on the bus coming from Bobo...?

It's not rare seeing people riding on top of a truck, sitting high on piles of suitcases, mattresses, bags of cement and sacks of grain, clinging onto dear life and bits of ropes... it's not so often, you see a sheep grazing on top of a bus and whizzing by at 50km...