Arch-dust

This is a word a friend of mine once used after passing through Serengeti National Park upon arrival home in Kiabakari. He and his fellow travelers he came with to visit me to Tanzania, unwrapped his suitcases and bags of plastic trash bags that wisely were used to secure the luggage. Still, they found out that dust was everywhere, even inside those bags and suitcases, no matter how tightly they were wrapped! He shook his head and said - 'This is not a normal dust! It is an arch-dust! You just cannot win the battle with it!'

I have already stated a few posts back that I dislike this part of the year - winter, dry season, kipupwe in swahili. I always have this feeling of dust in my eyes, dried and paining nose, parched lips and dry throat, cough, dry skin...

The recollection of that saying of a friend of mine came up in my mind when I was driving to the house of my friend for a chat and dinner this evening. My host and her Mum, visiting her at the moment, kindly asked me to join them for dinner on the veranda of their house 10 miles away from my place.

On my way to their house I had to go off the tarmac and drive some 5 miles on gravel/mud road. This time of the year when there is no rain for several weeks, you can imagine what kind of dust trail my truck left behind navigating the road! Poor passersby, people living or sitting by the road, they were covered immediately in the thick cloud of fine dust stretching for hundreds of meters behind my car, even if I was driving cautiously not exceeding 60 kph as the dust makes for a thin layer on the road surface making it slippery and tricky to drive on with worn tires of my truck. This is what I saw in the rear mirror in the car:

Dust was everywhere, inside the car as well, as the truck's air conditioning is dead for long time, so I need to drive with lowered windows to get air to breathe in this hot climate. When I eventually arrived to my friends' house, this is what awaited me:

Good things come to those who wait...or do not get discouraged easily  by the arch-dust!