It rained today

Now you might think that this is a good thing since we are sitting here in the middle of the Sahara desert.



In one way it is. When it rains, the liberated areas of Western Sahara turns green, and a lot of the people of the Refugee Camps leave the harsh conditiones of the desert. For a few months they go back to living in the liberated areas as beduins (their traditional way of living.



However, when it rains like ot did today, it creates a lot of problems for the Saharawi refugees. The land is so dry it cannot absorbe the rain pooring down. As a consequence the ground turns into mud, making it impossible to get around. And as if that was not enough, all of the houses are made out of the Sahara desert sand. Water and sand are made into bricks to build the houses, so when it rains the houses are in danger of falling apart.



This is what happened in 2006. The heavy rain caused a lot of buildings to collapse, damaging schools, institutiones and peoples homes. When you are a refugee and aready have very little, loosing your home is a great disaster. They are living in a country that is not theirs, under conditiones that are extremely difficult, so you can imagine what it feels like to loose what is supposed to be your home.



The refugee camps in the South Western Algeria, are some of the best organised refugee camps in the world, but there are certain things you just can prepare for. The rain here is a good example of that.



Outside it just stopped raining.



For now.