The Lord Of The Dust

That's how I can describe myself today. Simply and genuinely the Lord of the Dust. When I arrived home yesterday evening, I noticed how dry the whole area has become during these past two months of dry season, called here in swahili kipupwe. But what I have seen today, surpassed my wildest expectations. I was shocked to see how ugly the whole Divine Mercy Hill has become. Ugly, dry, dull, lifeless. Couldn't believe my eyes... African winter in its ugliest...

I took out my camera right after the morning Mass to immortalize what I've seen. This is how the glorious hill looks like. Shame...

Hoping for some rains coming soon to rectify the situation. But we may wait still a bit as there are no signs of any immediate changes in the current weather pattern, sadly. So, I guess will have to get used to this picture every day till rains change everything and bring to normalcy.

Dust is everywhere. I immediately felt it in my eyes, nose, skin got dry since yesterday as in Dar high humidity makes up for dry season effect on the skin. But here, in high altitude, almost 1300 meters above sea level, things are different. Dry is really dry! Dust settles on everything. Winds sweeping through Kukirango valley, strong particularly in morning and evening hours help to distribute the dust everywhere and mix it with the air making for strange foggy effect and poor visibility.

Today was the first day in the construction works. Clearing the site for the construction of the water tank produced plums of dust that covered me evenly. Then we cleaned two classrooms for plastering and flooring works. Sweeping floors covered with an inch thick fine dust produced another plum of dust adding to the flavor...

Then a semitrailer truck came in with 400 cement bags (initially) for the school works and water tank works. Offloading was fun too. This time it was not natural dust but fine cement powder hanging in the air and settling on all of us. Great!

In the afternoon hours I have bcome like a snowman covered with al kinds of dust and cement powder. You should see how a shower tray looked like when I took a shower before going to Buturu and Busegwe for a meeting.

I am back now and hereby I announce proudly that I add another title to my CV. From now on you may call me The Lord of the Dust.

And this is just a beginning...