My Harmattan Experience

Keep your skin moisturized!

During Harmattan the weather always changes drastically, the sun is hotter, the wind is drier and the nights are colder, this starts from the ending of October to early April. Growing up in the Northern Regions of Ghana I have experienced the harshness of this season. 

When the harmattan starts there are certain rules that come into play naturally if one wants to stay healthy and make it through the harmattan without much health problems, these include:

           Covering the nose with a cloth when it is dusty or when you are travelling on an  untarred road to prevent you developing respiratory complications;

          Using very good and effective body lotion to keep the skin moisturized and healthy, otherwise the skin often becomes dry and sometimes scaly;
       
   Drinking a lot more water to keep hydrated which of course prevents dehydration, a very serious issue;
      
   Also many people tend to carry around lip gloss, even men because the harshness of the weather can cause the lips to dry up and develop splits. I do not know the health implication of this but I do know that it is very painful and uncomfortable.

Me in my face mask!

There are many more precautions that need to be taken in this season but that above are just a few. So many people expect that as they experience the harmattan so often it should get easier as time goes by. This year’s harmattan will be my 26th experience and I can only remember vividly perhaps 17 or 16 of those, but I am yet to have an easy harmattan. Every single year I dread the coming of the harmattan, I keep hoping ‘this year’s harmattan will be different, it will be mild’, this however is never the case. I know that if I want a mild harmattan then I would need to spend that entire season in the South of Ghana as the Harmattan is always much milder there than it is in the North.

 Harmattan in the North never gets easier, however I love the season because it means the coming of Christmas and I love spending Christmas with my family. It is the season when everyone makes plans to spend time at home with their families and share love. So, we know that when the harmattan starts we also need to speed up our Christmas arrangements, deciding where to spend Christmas, making our travel arrangement, buying gifts for the family ( they do not come wrapped though), making Christmas budgets, buying or searching for Christmas decorations, calling up friends to make arrangements to catch up. So many exciting events happen during this season, for instance this year my family has formed a Christmas planning committee… 

Harmattan gives us the chance to share in each other’s experience and gather to help each other through (at least part of the season).

As I contemplate the harshness of the season, I think of our counterparts from the UK, I have spent 25 harmattans and still dreaded the coming of the 26th. This is their first and I can only imagine how they must be feeling. They have received the guidelines of making it through the harmattan, and they are seemingly prepared, but only time will tell if they are actually prepared.  I have heard that it can be slightly compared to winter for our counterparts only hotter, drier, dustier and less chilly.

We will go through this harmattan as we usually do, as a family sharing experiences, ideas and helping each other through. I may not be keen for the harmattan but one thing is sure this year the harmattan will be a totally different experience sharing it with this family.

Protecting ourselves from the Harmattan whilst in the communities