Mission Dustbusters in Khartoum!

Above is only one of the areas where the dust entered the apartment.

Yucky hey?

Yesterday I posted about the beautiful sideboard our neighbour, and a skilled carpenter, Mohamed, made for us. You can scroll down to read about it if you wish.

This week Grant invited Mohamed up for a Coca Cola and to discuss another project with him. (Nothing is rushed here in the Sudan - copious cups of tea, fresh fruit juice or glasses of Coke are consumed while discussing issues!) Grant has asked Mohamed to build two doors for us. These will be at the top of the first flight of [down]stairs and at the bottom of the next flight up.

The reason we'd like to close off the [open] staircase is that we are on a mission to keep out all manner of dust from now on. Before I arrived in August last year, Grant blocked up all the openings under the unused doors which lead out onto the unused front balcony. Now with the onset of summer which brings severe dust storms, we decided to do it again, but this time we'd ensure that NO dust would come into the apartment. Ever again!

For the past three days we've removed twenty-six floor-length curtains and five terrylene (net) curtains. I've washed them (I had to do each one three times!) and dried them on the line. It's so hot here that by the time the next curtain had been washed, the first one on the line had dried.

Once the windows and walls were exposed, we realised how much dust actually clung to them. I vacuumed and washed each one after which Grant sealed all the window frames with masking tape. We never open windows here because of the airconditioning. While I finished vacuuming and washing the floors, Grant hung the curtains up again.

The newly washed curtains hang against clean walls and windows

The outer door (never used) in the spare room. Grant sealed the bottom, taped the rest up and re-hung the curtains

Behind this board were broken and missing louvres. No dust will ever penetrate this barricade again!

The worst culprit was in the entrance hall window. The louvre panes were cracked, broken or had fallen out. As the weather comes directly from that side, most of the dust entered the flat through these. Grant boarded the window up completely and taped it down for good measure. Ha!

Two doors will be fitted at the top and bottom of the stairs in the photo

Mohamed has already done the measurements and bought the wood for the doors. He is hard at work and we think that our doors will be ready by the weekend. I will be taking photos of him at work in the area above as he fits the doors.