alright y'all. it has been a few years, but i think it's high time i get back at it. soon to come: thoughts on mo'orea - my field study site for the next two summers. my preliminary research question goes something like this: how does local indigenous knowledge influence spearfishing selectivity? i think it suits me, no? yes!

the pyramids at giza...

watching guard.

and at sundown...

the view from miguel's back porch.

from cairo - an ethiopian coffee setup with hookah in tow.

miguel showing off his boy's guitar-tamboura hybrid.

getting down on ramadan in cairo.

a stray on the streets of cairo. have you ever seen a cat with a coat such as that!?

the west end market in eldoret, kenya. it's the rejects from american good will stores and it's where i shopped.

as a going away present they slaughtered a goat for me at tumaini before i left kenya. a donated goat. that was supposed to be for the kids. the starving kids. i'm not joking.

some beautiful kids that i spent time with over the last portion of my trip...

abi, you are so beautiful.

anna! cheesing after munching on some avocado.

abi, who was abandoned at the hospital as a horribly malnourished baby, now lives with her new parents and 20 adopted brothers and sisters.

peter! he called me "baba" and cried out of jealousy if i picked up other kids. he was slated to be taken in by a home after i left. hopefully that has happened.

and a few months earlier...a sister dresses her brother's hair in rural madagascar.

a street musician performing on the big stairs in antananarivo, madagascar. i spent many a day basking in the warm tana sun whilst my friend here serenaded me with song after song.

here's a little collage of pictures in motion from madagascar with music from the xx.

street life

over the past couple of months a canadian public health student named lonnie has been doing some great work with tumaini. she took eight street boys through eight weeks of a drug education class in which the reward for completion was the chance to use a camera to document street life in eldoret. last week i helped to pick out the twenty best photographs that will go on display at an exhibition on august 14th to raise awareness about these children and the efforts underway at tumaini. this is just a small sample and hopefully i will be able to post more of the photographs soon (and credit the photographers).

incredible juxtaposition.

now you can see what it's like with the glue. and that's pretty much an every day, all day thing.

street kids can make a little money selling scrap metal that they scrounge around town. pretty sure it's scrap that's in the bag.

the idea for this project stems from 'born into brothels', which i still need to see. i am really impressed with the results. good stuff from lonnie and the boys.

it has been a while, my friends. thought i'd put up another poem from my journal. this is an old one that i reworked recently. i think it began aboard a boat.

take what you want

i want a purpose. spontaneously found.

something to make my heart swim 'round

and open my mind until unbound

so that i may hear the song when there is no sound.

i want to swallow the world and for it to swallow me.

to be lost in the swell of the great big sea

then found dancing atop the limbs of a tree.

i shall wander with wonder wherever i'll be.

...

in other news - i have been nominated for the peace corps. my potential placement would be at a french speaking post in sub-saharan africa working in an agro-forestry division beginning in december 2010. that's about all i know at this point.

i have accepted the nomination and now have to complete some medical and dental tests before my final placement goes through. once there, i'll know exactly what country i'd be going to and what specific work i'd be doing. so i'm waiting until then to decide.

i was hoping to go to an asian country, preferably somewhere tropical and near the sea. i'm a little hesitant about coming back to africa, but whatever country i get will almost assuredly be totally different than kenya (which is a good thing, as i want something new and fresh).

plus the people would be speaking french which is both terrifying and exciting. i don't speak much french and i would have to learn in a big damn hurry. anyway, we'll see what country i get (signs point to cameroon or guinea) and then reexamine my situation. i'm leaning towards accepting the offer, but who knows what'll happen in the next few months.

all in all, i guess planting trees for the next couple of years doesn't sound too bad.