Paris

I'm writing from a shop near Les Halles. Just wanted to say that I made it here alright; I'll upload some pictures when I get back to Ouagadougou.

It's 11:26am and I just remembered

how I woke up this morning. I've got to run to the market to get vegetables before the ladies fall asleep for their sieste, so I'll try to make it quick. I went to bed and it was completely quiet and still. I woke up at 6:30am and the sky shouldn't have been dark but was dark blue and grey, the color you see in movies when a small fishing boat is about to be destroyed. People were running around, moving furniture away from the screens and toward the walls. Mattresses too. A chair was pushed too hard against my bed and it fell over onto my legs. The wind was twirling dirt and dust like a father dances with his daughter and I went back to sleep immediately. After sleeping here for 5 weeks, on the same spot on the same porch, I knew that my little corner is safe. No matter how much it rains, I won't get any more than a mist letting me know my bike seat will be wet when I ride to the bureau or post office or market, where I'm going now.

American Language Center summer photos

Some pictures from this summer. I don't have much to say and am listening to new music (well, new for me) that Lindsey sent over, so the first picture is me in the classroom working with students and using a mixture of french and english known as franglais. I think this class was pretty advanced, so I would always try to first use English (minus words like ain't, y'all, ain't'cha, what'cha...actually, this is pretty interesting, in the most advanced class I could speak at almost full speed and the kids would understand almost everything. Once they asked me if there were any regional words that I used, and I wrote some sentences on the board for them. I told them that earlier that day I'd turned to Adlai and said, "Man, it ain't nothing but hot out here." Adlai said back, "Yep, it ain't." We also talked about y'all and how it goes in a full, quick sentence: Whatayalldoin instead of What are you all doing? It was impossible for them to understand. Don't feel bad for them though. Their French is ridiculous. When I get a text it takes me about 20 minutes to even read it. Demain is 2main, Bonne soiree is BnSre, tout de suite is tout2s8, et toi is e3, etc etc etc) and if they couldn't understand English I'd switch to French which they wouldn't understand any better because of my French. This next picture is either of me standing up while everyone sang Happy Birthday, or I'm just standing up in the middle of a meeting for no reason. Throughout the summer, we had competitions with the kids. The picture here is of Adlai declaring the winners of the 3 legged race. The little kids had lower centers of gravity and destroyed the competition. Last week we had the Olympic Games to cap off the 4 week course. The events included stuff like sack race, another 3 legged race, water balloon toss, the cracker challenge (where you have to eat a bunch of crackers and then whistle), and the spoon egg race. It was hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, and it's one of the only days in the last fifteen months that's been strong enough to give me a sunburn. It was fun though, and the kids got into it and had a good time. At the beginning here I'm a little hesitant to get started. It was hot. The next picture is of a younger student in the sack race. We got huge 50k bags of rice and used them. The rice sack was almost too big for this little guy! Teaching this summer was a great experience and I really enjoyed being here in Ouaga. I'm headed back to village either tomorrow or the next day (I need to buy paint for the world map we're doing the last week of September and some lye for the soap the AME (Association des Meres d'Eleves I think is what it stands for - Mothers Association) is making, and my director hasn't been able to get ahold of a cassette tape he wants so I might try to find that too). I'll basically clean my house, make sure at least a few people in village still remember me, and then I'm off to Paris via Ouaga to meet up with my cousin Matt. I'm so excited about Paris that I haven't been able to hold off and've been choosing things off the menu that are way beyond my means. The other night I had a steak au poivre vert with a side of ratatouille, and yesterday Becca and I split a cote de veau cordon bleu (veal). Tonight I went a little more African and had petit pois - peas cooked in a tomato sauce and some type of meat or no meat at all. It's one of my favorite dishes here, and I never would have eaten peas back home. I found an Ivorian restaurant here in Ouaga that is wonderful, I want to learn how to make a few dishes before time is up here in Africa. Lately I 've been smart with my money in only one way: instead of buying Le Monde for 1600 francs, I'm waiting until I'm in Paris to buy the Parisian paper. Also, my cellphone doesn't work that well anymore. The company I use now, Celtel, is changing its name to, or has been bought out by, Zain, and I don't know if it's that or just my phone but it doesn't work that well right now. A Burkinabe told me the other day that the reseau est tres sature - the network is very saturated. So maybe it's the phone company. I saw on espn that the Horns squeaked by something like 52 - 10. I also saw that we aren't ranked in the top ten. What?? Mags, I think we picked some good poets to study for English class. When you said Roethke I thought of James Wright and his famous poem in a Roethke type of style that says: Therefore,/their sons grow suicidally beautiful/At the beginning of October,/And gallop terribly against each other's bodies. That made me look up college football this afternoon. Dickinson is for Grandma, Frost is to study dialogue and shaping, Mr. EE is because he is creative, Stevens is concrete imagery, and the other one that we picked was....? I forgot. Anyway I think we picked some good poets for you, even if they are a little too classic for me. Dad sent me two dozen pens and I bought some journals, and while I'm in Paris I'm going to look in the English bookstore for Quiet Days in Clichy and Against the Day, and then I think I'll be set for a long, long time. Thanks again for all of your packages, letters, and emails. I don't know if I've said this before, but when you go off by yourself to do something by yourself and to make something of yourself by yourself, it's nice not to be by yourself. All my best, Clay

Non-Clay Blog

http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/
I just saw this on the nytimes. Every day this website is releasing a page from George Orwell's diary 70 years ago to the day. It even has transcriptions of the newspaper cuttings he pasted to his journal every day; they piqued his interest enough for him to include them just so he'd have them for later on. My grandma used to cut out comics from the funnies, and it's a rare end-of-the-day that the sumtotal of my pockets don't have at least one scrap of paper with an epigram or word or question or date or recipe scribbled down that I know I'll forget, so I think I can relate to George, and I think so can you. I once heard Danny Devito say (not directly but through a radio show) that he still goes to the movies about 5 times a week. When the radio host asked him why, he said, "Because I wouldn't want to miss that." I'm not much for quotes, I kind of think they're lazy, but I love that. The guy has an interest in things around him, not because he's bored or wants to show off or separate himself, but just because he's here and so is it, a thing that, at least partially, fulfills him. Alright, back to The Sopranos and another cool night sleeping out here on the porch. Clay
ps: By the way, Mom, I love your JFK and Eleanor Roosevelt quotes.

The Sopranos

I'm 4 days into Chinese-made Sopranos DVDs. The video quality's iffy, but Tony's anything but. So is his psychiatrist, Melfi. Other than them I can't stand anyone except for his mercedes car dealership short-term girlfriend. Someone just walked by and asked, Hey Clay, have you moved since 1pm? Well, actually, I have. Adlai and I had to carry a table back to our director's house. It was as long as it was heavy, so we sandwiched pillows and carried it on our heads. Also, I woke up this morning to Adlai sitting on my bed taking pictures of his neck beard. A neck beard is when you shave your face but leave the beard on your neck. Yes, it's as disgusting as you think it is. Adlai went to work with it and the Sprite vendor said, non, pas barbe, c'est pas jolie. I just feel stupid with it, he said when we got home. I can't go to work like this. I'm starting to get a cold. How am I supposed to go to the bureau and talk with the medical personnel with this thing? No no no, don't talk like that, I said. Kim, when you see a neck beard, what do you think: beautiful or disgusting? When I see a neck beard, Kim said, I don't think either of those things. I think: why would you have a neck beard? Stop it Kim, it doesn't have to be this way, alright? Adlai, I kept on trying, I have two things to say. A) the neck beard is great, keep it at least until Becca gets here. She needs to see it. B) Of course you look stupid, you're wearing a neck beard. When you were shaving, did you think it would end up any differently? It's great though, keep it. He didn't keep it, it's gone.
Back to The Sopranos. If you were wondering how my last days as a summer English teacher were going, you now have your answer. Oh and I've discovered where Dad and I are going for his first African dish. It's semi-authentic, and clean enough to keep him healthy.
All my best, Clay

Coffee shops in Paris

Does anyone have a recommendation? In Rome I got to go to the BEST coffee shop, according to Frommer's and thenytimes, and I want to do the same thing in Paris. I've been googling in two languages but haven't found anything. I guess it's not life or death, but it is a pretty good part of life. If you have a place dear to you, please pass it on. Clay

Barack Obama,

I wish you'd leave me alone. I mean, I love our relationship, but every time I check my email I have a dozen from you. I keep thinking my friends and family have sent me messages and all I get is your name over and over again; seeing it like that, it's paramount to a laundry list of socks. Socks, socks, socks. Can you imagine the boredom? And it's not just the amount of email, the promises in the titles are a bit hurtful to be honest. The first to know. You can make a difference. We need you. And tonight? It says Backstage. Backstage? I doubt it Barack. I haven't heard or seen the news in about fifteen months. I'm not backstage, I'm in the parking lot behind the theatre scrounging around for breakfast tacos and hot sauce containers to reuse as makeshift swimming goggles in case it ever rains - I've got Phelps fever, what can I say. Listen, I want you to win, honest I do. But like most Americans, I like my democratic process lazy. I want the smooth transitions of power and possibility of an actual say in my life, but I don't want to have to actually say anything. Or read things other people have said. So, even though this hurts, it has to be done: I won't be opening any more of your emails. I hope after a while you'll forgive me and we can go back to how we were. And remember, this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.
Good luck this November, Clay

Phew, that was tough. Okay so today was pretty fun. I filled in for a teacher and taught some English. The kids were great. They sang some two part harmony Bob Marley for today's song competition and most of the words were right on. I stubbed my toe on a brick outside the front door of the volunteer house, so now I have a bandaid and scotch tape wrapped around my foot. Today for lunch I spent 750francs and got a french fry and chopped vegetable lebanese wrap. It was delicious. Then I went to the embassy to watch the Olympics. It started raining and I fell asleep to powerlifting on channel 1 and 3metre diving on channel 2. Talked to a few volunteers today. About four or five people from my group are thinking of extending for a third year. I am not one of those four or five. Today's trouble words for my class: heels, hills, bass (music), bass (fish). We practiced those four words alone for about 30 minutes. Who is this group/person Taken by Trees? I have heard them about twice in the last week from different people back home. Speaking of back home, I was flipping through a Newsweek yesterday and I got to an article about the poverty in Niger. There was a fullpage photo of people walking their donkeys across the desert with plastic water jugs and buckets. And the first thing I thought? Or not even thought. Felt? Home. Am I missing village? I don't think so. But after a year of it, everything was comfortable, if a bit lonely. Although I'm really comfortable here, so I can afford to wax poetic about my village. When I have to confront the 8 hour busride to reach it I probably won't be so romantic. I'm going to the mosque with some of the teachers on Friday. It should be interesting, I've never been to a mosque before. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Take care, Clay
p.s. Mags, I got a text from you at 6:30 this morning. Has the schoolyear started back up yet? You need to be in bed before 2:30 in the morning!!!!