Sand in My Eyes and Everywhere Else

Well, anyone who lives in Saudi Arabia knows that water tends to be more expensive than oil, and sandstorms more common than rainstorms.  The months of February, March, and April are especially known to be the most sandy of all, with beautiful days with clear blue skies suddenly flipping into brown/orange foggy-like hell days.  I guess, since many of us are too lazy to head outside of  the city into the wild desert, it decides to come to us.  It gets to the point there’s more sand in the sky than on the ground…

For example, this past Friday evening (March 25th, 2011), Saudi news warned of a large sandstorm about to hit Riyadh within the next couple of  hours.  As I looked out every window of my house, I thought they must be bluffing.  The sky looked perfectly dark blue, and I couldn’t even smell any sand in the air.

Just in case…I’m going to close the windows.

Sure enough, within an hour the dark blue night sky was bright with sand, and my closed windows were defenseless against preventing the persisting storm from seeping sand through every door and window possible.  Indoors was almost as bad as outdoors…

I tried to sleep, but it was too late.  I had inhaled enough sand to the point I felt like my lungs were collapsing and my  breathing was minimal – only for the sake of survival.

Hey, maybe this will be considered serious enough weather that at least schools will be shut tomorrow…and at least I didn’t waste my time dusting anything today…

Half an hour later the news headline read: Schools will be closed tomorrow due to the severe sandstorm that has hit Riyadh and other areas.

Hallelujah!  Now I can sleep.

Advertisement