7/26} ...up early expecting that chicken, not until lunch. back to the pump to start digging the reservoir/cold tub. got most of it done before lunch. dugutiki's for free milk from the cattletaker, I gave him aspirin for his fever. opened up more pump, at this point I just need more helping hands. back at home I ate the papaya samankou gave me and I'm about to drink some of that milk. oh yeah and by the way, that chicken lunch was dynomite. so much salt and oil over rice. chicken tiga degenna. I ate so much, didn't do anything back home. wrestled and watched some of their cell porn. bobaraba haha. drank my milk with sugar. sat back and watched kids kick the shit out of each other, flying roundhouses and haymakers. no mercy for men down. shit's funny, better than pay per view. imagine, dirty sick skinny halfnaked kids wailing on each other. laughable for sure, I couldn't stop...
7/27} ...sidati woke me up early to go to likuruni, I didn't know it was so far. of course the road is longer when you don't want to walk it. without sleep or breakfast I didn't want to. it didn't help that their village was full of fucking flies. they gave me a blanket to lay on at sidati's friend's place and I just wrapped my head in it. god damn shit covered flies. the friend, fala, gave me his room and some peanuts and I passed in and out. then came food and sour milk, the dude was really accommodating and seemed to have a little bit more than the normal malinke dick. all this changed my mood, I even got some fresh milk and sugar since I won't eat that rotten shit, unless it's in moni or something. then we had the normal talks and greeted everyone who wanted to see the white man. we left and fala saw us to the road. the walk back was much more enjoyable, a crystalline sort of contentment. I started thinking about malinkes and how happy they can be, how high their highs and how low their lows go...
7/28} ...fell asleep round three. aijara woke me up around eight, just wanting to talk. I told her I'd get her at her house, but I wasn't getting rid of her that fast. she just told me her father is my host uncle, that she's my cousin, and that she had never seen him before coming to mali. she grew up learning french with her mother in cote d'ivoire. married in burkina '97, came to mali '01 to find her father. when she got here he married her off to a dude half her size and twice her age. she wants to go back to her mother but can't keep any money. she's got the biggest chip on her shoulder, damn...
8/2} ...went to madina with souleymane after doing brick work. sweat my fucking balls off. we opened their pump and then big rains came. we sat in kamissoko's place and I stared at the rain running out the bottom of the door in drippy streams. like looking down with a shower over your head. so sullen and quiet when the rains come. dark inside, low voices. kamissoko gave me a cigarette, they talked about damandalla. rain let up so we finished work with kids all over the damn place and the sun out of sight. I love the kids but they really get in the way here. there's no sense of hey, we're working, watch the fuck out...
8/3} ...orange skies this evening, in every direction, I don't know why. the crazy lady who always talks to me in one-word expressions and clicks and grunts just passed by and fell off her bike. she's not really crazy, just acts like it, like spacey or she ain't got some handle on her head. but enough handle to tell me to farm and to wave her finger at me in disapproval. I laugh. and she didn't really fall, they always catch themselves. I never see anyone fall here, just babies really. and they take some nasty spills. over stools into their food, into bullshit. into the fire pit. one kids whole face is charred, like a facial from hell. bangin heads on shit too and stepping on the worst kind of stuff...
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