Dust Storms

This past week has been relatively uneventful. There have been no major expeditions to new place, no fun and exciting outings to do service, no marriages, and no major problems...except for one. The last couple of days we've been experiencing the joys of the Middle East first hand, with our very own dust storm. Let me put it into perspective for you. Think of a normal day in the bay area, or almost anywhere for that matter that is near a large body of water. Now imagine waking up in the morning to a cloud of fog all around you everywhere you look, so thick that buildings furthers then several hundred yards are complete obstructed by the density of the fog. Now imagine to yourself if you will that, as normal you expect that the fog will disappear by around 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. at the very latest, only to your surprise, when 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. roll around there is still to fog. Now, replace the wonderful dewy moist smell associated with walking in fog and replace that with hiking in the mountains on an extremely dry trail for days on end and breathing in all the dust every time you breath because all the people in front and behind you are shuffling their feet and creating a nice thick could of dust that completely envelops you. This is the sensation of living in a dust storm. Granted the sensation differs depending on the severity of the storm, and based on how dry things are, but more or less if you can imagine that you have a pretty good idea of what it is like. The last two to three days has been essentially this.

One of the Campus Gardens

Crossing Traffic going to School

Wednesday morning, I woke up to what I thought was just a foggy day. Granted I thought it was a little weird to be having fog in the middle of Jordan, one of the driest more water deprived countries in the world (number 5 to be exact), but I figured hey, there is a large body of water nearby, its called the dead sea. So I didn't think anything of it. In fact for the walk to school, the entire time I was breathing in dust I was thinking to myself, this is really refreshing to have some moist fog in the air and the have the refreshing moisture in my nostrils compared to all the fumes and dust that I normally breathe in. However, as the day progressed and I sat in my University class listening to a professor speak about international organizations in Arabic, I continuously thought to myself, "Why in the world do I keep smelling dust and dirt? Where is that coming from? Is this room really just that dirty?" I really couldn't wait to get out of that "dirty" room and breath in some fresh air, so much so that when one of the Arab students in the class started smoking I gladly inhaled his second hand smoke as an escape from the dust. It wasn't until I walked outside and noticed that it was still "foggy" that I thought to myself, "My this is truly weird weather we are having here in Jordan. I never knew that in such a hot country the fog would last so long."

Walking down Campus

As I then sat in front of the University Library waiting for my friend to show up to go to breakfast, I continued to breath in the dust and wondered to myself where is all this dust coming from. About an hour later, after I had finished eating my breakfast of hummus and pita bread, I asked my friend about the weather and he proceeded to tell me that the weather was very strange. So, I told him, "Yeah, I never though fog could last this long." To which he told me that this wasn't fog it was dirt. He then indicated that if I ran my finger across just about anything I would see that it was actually covered in a layer of dust. I then realized that I was experiencing a dust storm for the first time in my life.

My way over to my normal classes was much more interesting considering, I now knew I was driving in dust, breathing in dust, walking through dust, and essentially living in dust. I now know what an unused book on a bookshelf at a public library must feel like. Lets just say that it isn't very fun. Even inside of building dust was filling the air, seeing as how doors and entry ways are for the most part just left open allowing all air from outside to freely enter the building. So the last couple of days I have spent eating, breathing, and drinking dust. However, I feel somewhat better seeing as how I didn't do any laundry and then have to dry it out in the dust all day...so many people in the program unfortunately were taken by surprise and had left wet laundry outside in dust all day long. All things said and done, the storm has made this week much more interesting, and has added just one more thing that I get to say I have experienced in the Middle East, and in my life.

All of the dust blocked out the Sun (at noon day) and caused it to look stark white like the Moon