Journal 8

If you call me tonight, you will be able to talk to me. Otherwise, next time.

October 7th

The holy month of Ramadan has started. During the daylight hours of each day, the good Muslim does not consume anything: food, water, tobacco, even sex. At night, after evening prayers, you eat well. It’s an impressive show of faith. I’ve decided to test myself and give it a try today

7:30 AM I’m not hungry or thirsty yet but I regret not drinking before the sun came up.

9:30 AM I’m doing my best to conserve my energies. I’m still relatively comfortable.

11:00 AM I’ll try again next week…

October 13th

Today marks the end of my first week of teaching. I feel like things are going well. The students appear to be disciplined, and for the most part motivated and intelligent. I think I’m able to express myself well enough to cover the main concepts, but I admit the science class is significantly more difficult.
Being good friends with Boly has really paid off. He got my schedule changed and now I have both Monday and Friday off. I also took advantage of the road construction to pay one of the bulldozer guys to clear off land for sports grounds at the school. We are talking seriously about setting up a basketball court in my honor. I think that means that I pay for it but I’m ok with that.

October 26th

I’ve come a long way in almost 8 months. I’ve had to confront a lot of my fears and I’m a better man for it. Anyone that knows me well is aware that I’ve never exactly been “one with nature.” I was never a big camper, mainly because bugs kinda freak me out. But you can’t live in Africa without dealing with a few insects. I’m proud of my progress. I’ve even gone so far as allowing certain small spiders to build their webs in my home and under my hangar. They do eat flies after all. I even had a mouse nesting in my rafters and it didn’t really bother me. We are all special patches in this magical quilt we call life, or some shit like that…
That all changed last night. I was simply sitting in my chair in the salon, having a nighttime smoke, when in the dim light of my busted light bulb I saw the mouse scurry up the wall towards my window. Then I recognized it and I froze. Definitely not a mouse… After I carefully approached for a closer look, my “fight for flight” instinct kicked in and I almost panicked. It took me a few seconds to start to think rationally and not run away form this monster bug. I figured if he disappeared somewhere in my hut and I couldn’t find him, I’d just have to leave Africa. So immediately I went for my trusty flyswatter, and after considering it, it was not the right caliber for the job. One shot one kill. It had to be that way.
So shoe in hand, I mentally prepared myself to strike, and possibly to defend against a counterstrike. After all, I had no idea what kind of abilities or powers it had. Could it fly? Spit acid? Was it super fast? As I convinced myself that I could do it, that I would win, I decided that I needed scientific evidence that this thing did not just exist in my mind as some terrible Larium hallucination. It was a risk, but it paid off. He didn’t like the flash but he moved into my killing zone. My heart was pounding, and then it was over. It was too dark to see him die but I heard his fat body hit the floor, and my shoe was a mess. I was pretty wired after that, and then I checked the picture. After I saw his face I had a hard time getting to sleep. Even now the thought gives me the shivers. That motherfucker was not part of my beautiful quilt.

Other Pictures:



I took this picture on the bus to Ouaga. It was the absolute last space you could shove a human being into. I was sitting on the first step next to the rear door. Not good times











Your friendly neighborhood vultures. These are the closest things I have to pets. A flock of vultures landing on a tin roof at 5 am sounds like the apocolypse.