Rhythm of the Seasons
One of the things I missed during my time in Iraq was that I never got a good feel for the change in seasons. Changes were very subtle and the one overlapping season I got was summer time heat (ok, I can tell you there is a lot of difference between 110 degrees and 120 degrees F but . . .). Here in Liberia, even though the temperature is pretty much the same year around, the changes are more noticeable, and it’s not just when the rainy season hits.
As I mentioned a while back, the bats are back. They’re now back in force - from waves flying from inland in the morning to settle in the trees to swarms bursting from trees to circle around for several minutes before settling down. Not only are they at the two main trees, they’ve also occupied a tree not far from a window near my section. A couple of times this week I got a closeup view of hundreds if not thousands of bats exploding out of the branches of a huge tree (note, the window is a blast window, so no possibility of a bat flying through it!).
The past couple of weeks I’ve noticed another change, and then realized what it was. On my walk to work in the mornings I turn down Gibson street to enter the embassy compound from the south/maintenance CAC (central access point). As I walk along Gibson Street, and later as I make my way up towards the embassy, I’m facing the morning sun rising in the east. Lately I’ve been seeing beautiful orange skies layered over Monrovia with a distinct, but not very clear sun. It dawned on me that the Harmattan is back. The change in wind patterns that bring the sands from the Sahara southward to coat Western Africa in a layer of desert dust.
Since then I’ve pieced other related changes to the Harmattan. Equally beautiful orange sunsets from my living room, ones where you don’t quite see the sun setting on the horizon. Clouds blowing from northeast to southwest as I walk home after work. And yesterday, while sitting in a restaurant at a meeting, looking out over the ocean and realizing why it looked so odd - the small wind-created waves were cutting cross-ways on the swells instead of following the swells like they do most of the time. And then the boats traveling north - not using their sails because during the Harmattan, the wind blows in the opposite direction than normal.
It’s nice to develop that rhythm of the season, to get a real feel of a place. Even if I’m not going to be here too much longer, it’s one more thing I was able to experience in Liberia.
[Editor's note: I was going to practice my light-room spot removal took skills and try to remove the telephone wires from the above image, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. Although photographs are not truth, and all photographs depart from reality to one degree or another, removing object altogether is something I find distasteful and rarely do. For an interesting horror story about the consequences of thoughtless object removal, read the story at the link here. Then again, I'm likely never to win that competition!]