voice was stern, but not yelling. The girl let go of Katie’s hand immediately. “Sorry, I am Hafizah.”
The girl muttered quietly. “So you do know English?” “A tiny, I guess.” Katie’s father breathed in
deeply, “OK, so what are you here for?” The girl shyly edged backwards a bit, “I try to tell you, that
storm is coming.” she made huge circles with her hands “dust storm”. Katie’s father stared intently
into the girl’s eyes “You mean, sand storm? In the night? Why? Aren’t they usually in the day?”
“Yes,” The girl replied shrugging, then she stared intently back at him. “We have to go.”
They pushed through the sandstorm, Hafizah the quickest. “Hurry, I have camels waiting… we
have to hurry.” Katie tried her best to sprint, but it was quite hard to run on sand.
“The camels are here. Go on quickly and careful. You can share a camel with me. Your dad
can ride the other one by himself. Don’t worry, your dad’s camel will just follow us.” Katie nodded
her head more confidently than she felt, but climbed onto the camel, trying not to slip as she
did so. Hafizah quickly climbed in front of Katie and sat in the front so she could steer. “Dad,
you ready to go?” Katy asked just in case “Yes, I’m up and all ready to go.” Her dad gave Katie a
thumb’s up and she then passed it onto Hafizah that they could go now.
“What happens when these sandstorms appear?” asked Katie, “Well,” Hafizah sighed, “my
parents tell me the Gobi Desert is getting bigger by more than 3600 square kilometers every
year, it’s also known as a process called desertification, getting closer and closer to Beijing.
The expansion of the Gobi desert is mainly caused by human activities such as: overgrazing,
deforestation, mining the water, urban sprawl, and drought.” Katie had concern spread on her face
“Is the government doing anything to make it stop?” Hafizah sighed, “Yes, it made the Chinese
government worry. They are planting forests to try to stop the Gobi desert from getting bigger.
Some people call it the Green Wall of China. They also try other things but no big change has
happened yet.” Katie thought for a while, she thought she had an idea on the tip of her tongue, but
it went away just about when she was going to tell Hafizah.
The dust storm grew stronger and Katie felt sand abruptly swept into her mouth. She felt
disgusted and leaned over on her left side to help spit it out. When she got most of the sand out,
she lifted her head and realized she couldn’t see anything because the sand was whirling around
like crazy. She called for her dad to make sure he was right behind them, but she could barely
even hear her own voice. Then, she had this crazy thought, if she couldn’t see or hear anything,
how will her dad’s camel be able to follow them, and most importantly, how will they make their
way if the camel couldn’t see anything? She gulped. This had to be the end.
Suddenly, the camel stumbled over something, probably a rock. Katie lost her balance and fell,
landing in a cushion of sand. She kicked and screamed for her dad and Hafizah, but there was no
reply. Blindly, she desperately tried to grab onto anything that would help her up, but there was
only sand that kept slipping through her numb fingers.
She heard footsteps rushing towards her. Groaning, Katie slowly opened her eyes, rubbing
them for a better view. She tilted her head slightly to look around. Her dad was calmly sat on the
end of the bed. “Dad, what just happened?” she asked sleepily “Well, I was just getting ready for
my trip to the Gobi desert tomorrow and then I heard you calling for me so I immediately rushed
over.” Finally, Katie’s mind came to sense “It was all just a bad dream…” she thought to herself,
relieved. Smiling, she nudged her dad “Hey dad, you don’t need to go to the Gobi desert anymore.”
Her dad sighed “Sweetie, you do understand…” “Yes, I do. But actually, I’ve got an idea on stopping
the Gobi desert’s massive expanding.” Katie boasted. “Yes, that’s wonderful. But I don’t think
that you will have quite the right idea since you haven’t really been to the Gobi desert.” her dad
