August Wind

Happy August all!
Wow it's been a long time since I updated this. I have reasons, most of which are just excuses for not writing enough, but I'm turning over a new leaf!

It's August here in central Namibia and I have learned very quickly that that means the end of winter and the start of the August wind. Last week I was freezing cold. I woke up every day and put on five layers of clothes and wore them all day. I was so cold I got a heater. Over the weekend it got a bit warmer and then, yesterday, the wind started blowing. The wind brought with it a 20°C temperature change. This morning was easily around freezing, but as the sun rose and the wind picked up, the temperature rose to 23°C. That's around 75°F, for those of you who aren't my dad.

The August wind has brought more than just (dry) heat. It's kicking up clouds of dust and sand. Mrs. M promises a complete lack of visibility in the coming month. I'm both really excited to be living in a perpetual sand storm and silently morning the sad future this presents for my laundry. Oh dear! There is also this word thing the dust is doing to the afternoon sky. Though visibility is still good, the sky has turned a grey blue that makes it look like it's going to storm, except it won't because there's absolutely no moisture in the air.

When the sun goes down, the temperature begins to drop against at an alarming rate. Today, however, I hot the sweet spot. The sun was gone but still had just enough presence to turn the sky a purplish pink and as I walked home from my friends' house the wind turned cool. It was not some sort of pleasant little breeze but the same powerful gusts that blow off the prairie back home, making trees of the Forest creak and moan like they're taking to each other. There is no prairie here and there are nowhere near enough trees to constitute a forest, but as I walked home, I felt the same power and awe I feel in a good Kansas gale.