I’m really not exaggerating…..

Ok, I thought maybe I was imagining the dust, smell of smoke and intensity of the wind yesterday. Maybe I was just in a bad mood and going stir-crazy because of a three day weekend. The wind was so noisy last night and the smell of smoke so strong that a few times I wondered if I should get up and check so see what was going on. (I opted not too using the good old standby philosophy that some things are best not known.) This morning when I woke up the wind had died down. I looked out the window and couldn’t see 200 yards from my bedroom window. There is a mountain probably a quarter of a mile from where I live and I couldn’t see the slightest hint of an outline for that mountain. After breakfast I decided I’d wipe things off again using a wet cloth. It was then that I realized I was not exaggerating. I took a picture of the ash and dust on the window sill right above my head. It was actually worse in the living room and you should have seen what had blown in under the door. So I’m attaching a picture so you will know I wasn’t making this up.

As the wind stayed very light during the day, the low laying smoke cleared a bit. I could see fires still burning on the hill side. A friend who lives in Mbabane said the fires were so bad around her house on Saturday and yesterday that all they could do was watch and have faith that they wouldn’t jump the road that goes around their house. At least one of the forests in Swaziland is on fire as well. The way the smoke is around here, it seems as if all of Swaziland is on fire. The air is so thick with pollution. Unfortunately the rains normally don’t start until October and we certainly don’t want anymore winds.

Oh, when I was wiping off my window sill I noticed that one of my neighbors who lives in the teachers houses started burning garbage. Ya gotta love it.
All in all, it’s been a blessed day. I spent most of it listening to Christian music and then watching “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.” That kept the negative thoughts about what’s going on in Swaziland at bay.