It’s raining in Cairo, again. It never rains here, they tell us. It must be global warming. So have I yet written about the excessive quantity of dirt in this part of the world? We dry our clothes inside because they will be far dirtier if we use the lines off our balcony. Inside our apartment dirt lines the baseboards. In general, everything is brown. The ground is brown, the buildings are brown, the plants are brown. When it rains, dry brown turns to wet brown. Streets here are not engineered to drain at all (after all, it doesn’t rain here) and so puddles abound. The grime that already coats most everything turns to a filthy sludge. The rain itself is dirty. Upon inspecting the recently acquired water drops on my shirts and pants, I find smudges of dirt. I was previously unaware that anywhere could be this dirty. I dread the rain because of the inevitable mud, but the air is somewhat cleaner afterwards. Pollution here is terrible and is giving most everyone sinus troubles. For this one reason rain is greatly appreciated. It definitely complicates the already chaotic traffic.
January 22, 2008...3:36 pm
rain + cairo = mud-fest 2008
Jump to Comments
