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March 22, 2003, Ok, i don't think i've actually had a good chance to sit down and send out proof of my continuing existence in a while, so i thought i'd reassure you that i'm still here. i'm still here.
things are actually fabulously excellent, despite the war and few problemes sentimentaux, as my buddy says. i took the aids club to tchibanga for a kick ass AIDS party/dance contest, in which michael jackson impersonators lit themselves on fire and my kids did two skits to thunderous applause and raucous laughter. getting there was a battle and a half, thanks to the unreliability of GMC vehicles. Why did anyone ever think a full size chevy extended cab could survive on our roads? fortunately a certain serge came to our rescue and took us in his 4wd toyota bus, totally saving the day. So tchibanga was great, i went out with my kids after and zouked with a bunch of them, then carried them back to the bus and put them on their ride home. they were all more or less wasted and sang AIDS songs the whole way home. Now our projects are presentations in ndende and this mural contest, which i just announced this week, in all the elementary schools and at the high school. when i wrote the grant i thought about the impact the finished murals would have, and not really the fact that EVERY child in ndende is going to be working on their own AIDS poster, which is, in my mind, so much better and broader than one mural on a wall could ever be. I believe in pounding messages into people over and over and over again; the more they hear it (in different ways, of course) the deeper it sinks. Right? i am going to london in early june to visit mom and dad, this is right after our close of service conference (three months before i leave). then there's helping with training the new volonteers and trying to figure out what the hell i will do back home. i think right now holing up in door county with all the movies i missed sounds like a really good idea. then maybe boston. or, whatever. I could also stay here and get married to serge and have lots of little metisse babies driving 4wd toyotas all over gabon, like a little army of transporters. we could put megaphones on top and announce AIDS propaganda and sell condoms, maybe like a traveling AIDS circus or something.
ok folks - let me know how you are doing in the midst of all this foreign policy bumfuckery. i have actually turned off the worldspace so as to bury my head in the sand. maybe by the time i come home it will all be like a bad dream.
du courage, take care, best wishes, happy birthday, etc, etc, etc -- be good to eachother.
hugs, |