The khamseen season is supposed to end in April, but this week was unseasonably sandy and hot and my colleagues spent a good deal of "water cooler" time complaining about it. It's the usual office chatter about the weather, sort of like what other people might have about extended rainstorms or cold snaps, until they realize how lucky they are.
To the uninitiated, talk of giant clouds of sand besieging the city, blocking the sun, and trapping the heat, seem part of an orientalist fantasy, a more suitable script for Rudolph Valentino in a turban than the unveiled Director of Human Resources. But sandstorms are very real, something every Egyptian realizes the moment they are forced to navigate their feluca down the Nile in one (pictured above).
To the uninitiated, talk of giant clouds of sand besieging the city, blocking the sun, and trapping the heat, seem part of an orientalist fantasy, a more suitable script for Rudolph Valentino in a turban than the unveiled Director of Human Resources. But sandstorms are very real, something every Egyptian realizes the moment they are forced to navigate their feluca down the Nile in one (pictured above).
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