Rolling Storm

Since I arrived in Niger in 2008 - I've been amazed at the dust storms that blow in at the beginning of each rainy season.  It reminds of scenes from a few movies - either Tom Cruise on the side of the building in Mission Impossible 3 as the storm blows in  .... or the scene in Hidalgo during the horse race in the desert as those in the race gallop towards an abandoned village for shelter from the storm.

The storms are not always as large as seen in these movies - but the effect is the same.  I understand the "anxiety" of the horse racers - as I have been on the highway and driven towards the storm as fast a possible to reach my destination before the storm reaches my vehicle!  The sky will always turn a dark orange, and sometimes black as midnight, in the space of about 5-15 minutes ... making it unsafe to drive for the duration of the storm!

It's been a dream to be out in the village one day with the panorama of the landscape to see one of these blowing in ... and this year, I finally got my dream!  I was out doing chicken vaccines one day when one of the storms blew in!!  We had just arrived in one group of huts and as we got down from the truck, I looked over to see the clouds rolling in!  We had only just left the previous grouping of huts about five minutes prior - to a clear sky and no hint in the sky of this approaching sand storm - and the panorama that I left my vehicle to see (the first photo below) had been behind us during the drive.

Often these sand storms precede a rain, but fortunately this day it did not.  Unfortunately for the fields and their crops ... but fortunate for me at least - as the roads between this village and town are rife with crevasses and water paths which flash flood during a heavy rain.  It would have made it impossible for me to get back to town for at least a few hours, perhaps even not until the next day!

The next series of photos are captured of the storm front - a few from different angles to see the billows grow and encompass the area:

And from a different angle - with the village "mountain" in the background:

All of this occurred in about 10 minutes - from when I left my truck and saw it coming to this point in time!  It was blowing in fast!!

If you are wondering why the guys are running around in all the photos .... we were there to do chicken vaccinations - so at least in the first photo, you can see the chicken chase was on!!  At this point, we decided to make for cover.  When I turned with the guys to walk to the hut for shelter - I could see that the storm had curled in behind us on the outer edge!  I spent the walk with my head down and trying to shelter my eyes - the sand was like a painful blast of a face scrub!

From inside the hut as the sand storm continued to roll over us.  Inside, we vaccinated chickens that had been caught - and watched the sky go orange around outside!  Poor donkey!

At some point, as the sand started to decrease, the village children headed out to another hut.  I could barely see them in the blowing sand!

A few minutes later, as the sand dissipated further, we too ventured forth and made our way to the next village area for more chickens.