Harmattan

The proprietor of the Hotel Hendrina Khan, hewing to a tradition among all local individuals of saying the weather is usually not this bad; has announced that the day we arrived in Timbuktu was the First Real Day of the Harmattan. This is not the month of fasting; this is the two months where you never get to see the sun because of blowing dust in the air. Deserts are prone to this kind of obstruction. Mad Magazine may not be on line, but I will bet that Mark Twain’s “Roughing It” is; go to Project Gutenberg and look up his description of the “Washoe Zephyr”.