Saturday 16 January 2016

Kiya ajeeb, sohana aur dilkash mausam hai


Getting these few rainy days in Monrovia, in what should be the height of the scorching dry season, is unsettling but also also a welcome respite. 

On Monday night, I stepped into the balcony to turn off the generator and switch us back to LEC after I noticed our LEC bulb, hanging over our kitchen door, come on. It's always such a relief to know the light is back on. Although our generator is in the back yard of the apartment building and, it is not nearly as loud as when we used to have a generator on the very same balcony at first and later on our rooftop, there is still a steady hum, white noise that always makes me uneasy. 

Well anyway, after I told "Bijli" to stop pouncing on me, hyper as she is being cooped up on that balcony,  and after switching off the generator, I paused to notice how remarkably chilly it was. 

I came back into the apartment and walked across the carpet to settle back onto the sofa and continue enjoying my nightly fix of Dallas. 

I told Haresh, "Kiya khoobsoorat hawa chal rahee hai." 

The next morning, I woke up to a really overcast day.  I felt a positively cool wind on my face while walking from the apartment to the office. 

The rest of the day was quite cool and my office felt a little too chilly with the AC on. Later on, I looked up from my desk to see it drizzling outside.

The next few days were remarkably cool so much so that we did not have to use the AC in our living room. Everyone had donned a jacket or sweater because for most people in Liberia it is really cold.

Even non-Liberians who have lived in Liberia for many years swore they've never felt so cold before, even in the rainy season.

Getting these few days of cool weather feels like a borrowed season. The town feels different. Everyone seems to have donned a jacket or sweater for this is cold weather indeed. The colour of the sky is grey. The air is crisp and cool. But it is not completely grey, like winter in the northern hemisphere where the trees lose their leaves. Here, we still have greenery all around.

Harmattan is but a brief and welcome break in the dry season. 

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