Thursday, January 18, 2007
Experiencing the Harmattan Haze
The Harmattan is here in Gabon. It's a very strange experience for me. I don't remember having it here last year. Now, since last weekend, everything is covered by a strange dry grey fog. While this cool wind from Sahara brings some refreshing air (along with the sand dust, of course:) to other countries affected by it (like Benin or Nigeria), here we feel just a strong "greenhouse effect". Not that there's any fresh and cool air any other time of the year :). The sun is blocked by the dust clouds all day long, the visibility is low, no beautiful sunsets; you can hardly distinguish between the sky and the ocean at the horison. Luckily, a heavy rain has just started as I write this. Hopefully tomorrow morning the dust will settle down a bit.