Dust

 

It is dry here, very dry. It hasn't rained since May. That's normal. If all goes well, the rainy season will start again in September.

The grass around my house is barren. The plants in the garden are covered with a layer of sand.

I live at a dirt road. Apparently there is a system here in Kigali that works as follows: if residents of a street – not a major traffic artery of course - are willing to invest a substantial amount themselves, the municipality will supplement the cost and pave the street. But that has not happened here as yet.

A dirt road, that generates dust, especially in the dry season. An unpaved road is preferable to a bad asphalt road, at least if it is maintained from time to time. A road grader, with some kind of scraper attachment, then repairs the road surface. Moving back and forth across the road the grader removes washboard ridges, potholes and other irregularities. But when a car drives on it, it is automatically followed by a cloud of dust.

My street cannot be called smooth, on the contrary. I have never seen a grader here and after every rainy season the potholes get deeper. On top of that, whoever does a renovation or demolishes a wall, throws the debris onto the street. Perhaps with the aim of filling the pits, but I am not sure it always leads to an improvement in ride quality....

A few weeks ago, a pile of soil appeared at the house across the street. It was getting bigger and bigger. That piqued my curiosity. Two men were digging in the side border of the house. The hole became so deep that they disappeared from sight and the mountain became more and more imposing. Were they digging a tunnel? Making an air-raid shelter? It turned out to be less exciting: a septic tank was being dug. But what to do with all that soil?

Of course, into the street! The stretch of road in front of my house has never been flatter than it is now. But perhaps never more treacherous either. That earth has never been properly tamped down. As it continues to dry out, the layer of ultrafine sand on top gets thicker and thicker. It is dangerously slippery. The rear wheel of my bike regularly spins on it. And, every movement generates masses of dust.

Bring on the rain!