cruisin

...greeting eating digging sleeping smoking. hot high and dusty winds. no ice, ice cream, a/c, swimming pools, cool lovers, cold covers. I'm in hell. we dance at night, the sweat heat and dust rise into the starry night sky. the women throw a fit and the men stare at the village idiot, the town fool. kids chewing on black rubber and sucking on their shit filled fingertips. sometimes I can't stop laughing...

ups n downs. village has been pretty quiet, a lot of my people went to damandala to dig for gold. really diggin site lately... maybe hot season won't be so bad. my homologue and I went to a commune party in kumakeri. it was a buck to get in, a big deal out in the bush. this bought meat and macaroni, some television shows, and the dance party. we sat for like three hours watching terrible malian music videos and nature shots. they started playing the fifth element, in english too not french, but everyone freaked in the beginning when the big metal aliens come down. they don't really like that sci-fi garbage. action and guns and martial arts. fbi cia cops and robbers and detectives. that's more like their thing.

my sense of humor is finally comin around, it helps to be able to laugh with them, laugh at them. you have to start joking with these people or it's gonna be rough. most things are pretty laughable anyway.

helps to open up too. share ideas, motivate, be social. I'm not really, definitely pickin some up though. reading a lot... finished Dandelion Wine and Choke. dandelion was a nice escape into small town old school america. haven't read Ray Bradbury since grade school, I think maybe I got a little bit of how I write from his style, way back then subconsciously or something. choke was way different and more enjoyable, reminded me not to be so damn uptight. I try too hard sometimes, gettin caught up in my head. once again, open up and shit will just come, just be yourself. I'm not myself so much that I can't even think straight, can't find any reference. we're all a little messed up, but it's all good. it's good that I'm out here. nothing I expected but everything I wanted.

in the middle of Basic Economics, a really good read if you wanna understand how the world works. how our world works, the world of wants and needs and how we affect each other. but that's where it stops, in this reality. if you're lookin for an alternate reality or maybe spiritual growth then don't bother. after that I'm pickin Anna Karenina back up and finishing it once and for all. also got The Enormous Room and Tale of Two Cities on the roster. drop suggestions if you have them. though we have a limited selection. I've never read this much in my life.

I'm really just having a good time. no distractions, start thinking about your life. get a handle on it. realize how much you can do. no one around to follow or worry about.

this is the local language summary that prefaced my project proposal, if you're interested in some malian tongue...

Sayn n kana Marembilia, dugu mogow tun b'a fe ka miniji nyuman caman soro. Sisan, u ye ji la bana caman famuya barisa u mana taa ponpe walima kolon na, u be samara bo ani u te juruflen bila duguma. U y'u jija ka kolon ko yiriwa, nka u ka baara ma dafa barisa u t'a cogo don. Ola anw ye ji ni saniya ton sigi sin ka, ka masala caman ka ka, ka ben kan kelen kan.

An bena kolon segin laben ani ka ponpe fila dilan ka dow bo ji ko toorola. Miniji yoro nyuman kelen bena bo kelen na ka se tan ni kelen. N bena kolonji furake cogo yira dugu mogow la, ka jaw yira u la. N bena ponpe baara cogo, ka ponpe minaw, ani simon baara cogo nyuman yira dugu mogow la, i ko kordelapay yan kalan na cogo mina. Nin bee kofe, an ka baara nin bena men barisa dugu mogow bena fen caman kalan. O saba b'u la dugu mogow fene bena se ka dugu were kalan.