Favorite moments from the past week

--dance party on our last night together as a staj, the 44 of us left from the original 66, and the best moment of that was dancing the twist to Little Richard


--afterwards, Eric H appeared and thanked me several times for having recommended INFINITE JEST to him - he appeared as if he hadn't slept since he'd finished reading it, and talked about his newfound need to 'read it 8 times' so its lessons soak in ever deeper. Especially for a book that can be so NOT wonderful to some people, to share it with someone that likes it as much as me is GREAT ;)

--the man at the Velada on his day off recognized me in the Dar B3ida (Arabic for Casablanca) area at a bus stop in L'Oasis. Good eyes, especially since I was in my jilaba and turban! About that, Sam said: You look like the real thing, a convert.

--Similarly, it was nice to sit during my physical with Dr Taofik and feel powerful, accomplished, that of a person who has lived in a part of Morocco that many urban Moroccans would be unable to handle. Cara's Casa friends likewise said: Ya'll are crazy to do that! And you don't get a car? How do you get around?? Isn't it hot? There's no (X), there's no (Y). :§ And to now be among those that have 'done it', and so be able to intimidate the softies in the cities without even needing to say words feels good.



--having the thought: never again, except for rare exceptions* will I ever allow myself to work for a place that requires 'samples'of all my bodily fluids before I am allowed to enter it and again before I leave it. It felt good to take my last one to the laboratoire d'analyses and now I'll likely not have to go back (except in the instance that I'm diagnosed with schistosomiasis, which has a strong likelihood of happening).

--Reunited with my guitar Betsy, and came up with a great new chord full of raw energy and an ambiguous mood : C/F#.

--watching tears come to Adriana's eyes after our goodbye and our many promises ''I'd rather meet you in Colombia than in South Carolina, I think!'' with Peggy C saying ''Heck, I wanna come!'' In my book, tears of sadness can mean that you either did something really wrong or that you did something right.

--Books: Getting sucked into Isabel Allende's ISLAND BENEATH THE SEA, especially sinc it is a reminder of the primary influences on my life, the primacy of Latin America in my heart and that, as good as North Africa is, it's a poingant and important, but ultimately a passing stage in my life. The same goes during other moments of the week -- Ali Records giving me a copy of FREEDOM, the new Franzen marvel (30 pages in and Im in love with the book already)


--Going to the beach with Jeff and Will, qnd two Moroccan lifeguards maybe saved my life when I got pulled past a long row of 6 foot waves by a ripcurl. I wish I could have taken them out for tea!
We followed that up with a jam session on the bus, sharing Will's yukele, writing a song in Darija on the spot, and entertaining Moroccan people all at the same time.

--Fast Pizza four times, once alone, once time each with Sarah, Caytlin, alone and with Catherine B.

--Goodbye hour with Amina -- each person was told to give her one of the roses from the table and tell a story of why Amina made such a valuable impact on our service. On my turn, I reached to give her the whole pile, since I wish I could. But I sat them down, picked a nice one and then whispered my tribute into her ear rather than sharing it out loud.

--Going to the Chinese embassy with Sam and Pete. Id not even thought of getting a visa for there, so I was glad to have run into them and to have similar plans as they.


--This photo:



--Adding old country-director David L into our final group photo, then having four others come up to me saying they'd missed the photo shoot and needed me to photoshop them into it, too.

If you need a little more DL in your life, here's the green-screen version

Good looking man!
Use with caution and respect, or we'll come beat you up, wherever you is.

--At the Last Supper, I was voted: ''Most likely to end up serving jail time after stalking Shakira and/or Sade.'' Fair enough, then on the one where we all voted, me and Ewald got voted most likely to end up homeless. ''That's OK, if that happens we'll come back to L-Mgrib and Islam will take care of us!'' For my acceptance speech, I remarked : If this is the future awaiting me back there, jail time then homelessness, I think I'd rather just stay put here!'' If I could do it again, I wouldn't have said anything but would have started singing : ''there's a fi-iy-re burnin deep in my soul''. That'd have been classy.

--buying a ticket to Mali, then ordering a bird guide, ''Birds of West Africa'' -- hope it gets to N'Kob by then. It's not a ticket home, but... I figure Ive earned it, a chance to regroup and go to the Other Africa that's on the side of my backyard. I might even get to Timbuktu.... :) though I heard it's heyday was 150 years ago.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 Royal Air Maroc 523 Economy | Boeing 737-700 Passenger (73G) | 3hr 35min | 1434 miles
Depart: 9:25pm Casablanca, Morocco Casablanca Mohamed V (CMN)
Arrive: 1:00am Bamako, Mali Bamako (BKO)

--waking up naturally everyday for the last month at 7. Its been a very good positive difference in my life!

*NASA, is the only one I can think of, and only if I get a COOL name for my position, like ''Galaxy Defender Superior Maximus'' or somesuch.

'Til next time! Keep it classy, Dallas.