Greetings and Dust Storms

During my site visit in late August, my host dad comes to my house trying to convey something to me I didn’t understand. So he pulls me outside and points to the sky. Its rainy season so I figured he was telling me it was going to rain. But when I look up at the sky there are no rain clouds but a huge cloud of sand and dust instead. My host dad was trying to tell me to close my windows to guard against the storm. And it was indeed just wind, sand, and dust for at least 30-45 minutes. Once I got caught in the nyegen (the squat toilet, bathroom area). While I was taking a bucket bath a dust storm suddenly came! I wasn’t very clean after.
Although its rainy season, since I’m further up north, I have experienced little rain up here, just dust storms.

Greetings are very important in Mali. The start of every conversation, no matter what it’s about is “Good morning/ afternoon/ evening/ night! How’s your family? How are your children? How is your husband? How is their health? Does your morning/day going?” No matter if you are stopping to ask directions, buying stuff in the market, you greet. In my village people ask about my family twice though. They say good morning… how’s your family? … how’s your family?” Sometime the questions are in two different forms and sometimes they just ask the exact same question. I’m not sure why. And its not just me they do this too- this is the greeting for everyone. And if you don’t greet, it seems offensive and disrespectful.