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Dust People

The first time I saw one, I was in Kampala, Uganda during my first walk around town.  She was sitting on the sidewalk breast feeding her infant.  It was difficult to determine the two different bodies.   Both were covered with dust and dirt and their tattered clothes were basically the same color as the dirt and dust on their skin.  I had never seen anyone so dirty except images of coal miners coming out of the mine.  I was quite freaked by how she looked and the fact that she was carrying a baby.  I turned and walked away as soon as I saw the wild look in her eyes.  Oh my!  I saw a few more in Kampala that same trip and I started thinking of them as the dust people.  They all looked just as dirty as the first one, their torn clothes were also the same dirt color and they always have the crazed look in their eyes and no shoes on their feet.

Nairobi has dust people, too, but they are not in large numbers.  One morning there was a young dust man wedged between a concrete curb and a metal fence.  I was sure he was dead, but he also may have just passed out in that location.  Two police were kicking his legs to get him up and out of the area since he had crashed just around the corner from parliament.  I kept walking.

I am not sure what the story is with dust people.  They seem to just tumble into big cities from somewhere else seemingly riding the winds.  It appears that they are drug addicts or mentally ill or both and have fallen through their social network and the non-existent safety nets.  How they can get so dirty, I do not know.  Why they are always wearing dark clothes further darkened by the dirt, I do now know.  I do know that the look in their eyes is one of the scariest things I have seen.  They’re shot, they’re fried, they’re desperate.  They are the lowest it goes in Africa.

I have seen dust people in India.  Same same as Africa, but different.  India really takes everything poverty to another level.  I think I have even seen worse than dust people here in India, but I think it will take some time to fully weigh exactly what I have seen.  There are times when something ten meters away is just too unreal and surreal to believe.  I cannot comprehend and explain dust families living in the streets, for instance.



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