duststorm

On Wednesday morning when I met a young Saudi colleague, he began to talk about the weather after the usual greetings. This doesn't seem to be a common practice here, but my colleague had spent some time in England in a bid to improve his English; and the weather here that day was different and bad.


It was the first of two days of sandstorm. Actually it was more like a duststorm with more dust than storm. When I looked out of the window on Wednesday morning, it was like a thick fog had formed overnight. The sun looked pale, like the moon but a bit brighter. By nightfall, I could smell the dust inside my flat, like you do when you dust stuff that hadn't been touched in years. I had bouts of sneezes and coughs. By the next day everything inside was covered with a layer of very fine dust particles, although all the windows and doors were shut. Friday was spent cleaning up the place to make it habitable.

I am not looking forward to any further opportunities to talk about the weather.