It’s raining!  Or at least it was.  Briefly.

So I was at my computer grading homework assignments when I heard the crash of my mystery flower plant toppling over.  The winds here pick up often, so this wasn’t the first time the plant fell over, but when I turned to look I saw that my entire skyline had disappeared into a blanket of yellow haze – my first Saharan sandstorm!  I went out to my balcony to snap a few pictures and realized I was getting wet.  Rain!  No better excuse has yet presented itself to take a break from working.  I grabbed my hoody and took to the streets with my camera.

At this point my photo tour was cut short.  There are two types of police on the streets here.  Those dressed in white are the traffic cops, and are usually not packing.  Those in black are the real police, and they are usually carrying some sort of assault rifle and/or sidearm.  The lesson I learned today is that if I want to take pictures I need to be quick and keep moving.  Standing on the corner for 5 minutes waiting for the perfect shot of a passing Vespa with a beautiful minaret in the background of the palm tree-filled roundabout is not a good idea (even though the odds were definitely in my favor that within another 5 I would have had my shot).  A black shirt police truck rolled up and the cop inside immediately demanded my camera, which I admit may have looked a little strange with a giant wide-angle lense screwed on.  This, of course, was something I was not going to do willingly, for fear of never seeing it again.  So I played my foreigner card and pretended I didn’t understand.  When he got out of the truck I immediately flipped the camera around to show him the pictures I had been taking of my building.  I said “I live here” and pointed to the camera and to my building (which was unfortunately to my back from where I had been standing and pointing my camera).  Eventually he got back in the truck and all I really understood him to say was “It is forbidden.”  “Ok, malish, malish” (sorry, sorry) was my reply as I high-tailed back up to my flat.  the end.