It’s been a few days—sorry about that. Kirill got in on Monday, as expected, with his assistant, also named Seydou. It was really nice to see him and speak a little bit of English. We even celebrated with some mildly terrible Malian beer (Castel).
Work has been progressing steadily. Most of the large noun sections of the dictionary are done. Now it’s on to a lot of verbs and adjectives and other more abstract concepts. Time goes quite quickly, though.
I have realized in the past couple days that if I were to draw a Venn diagram of things that give me nightmares and things that are found in Mali, a large portion of my nightmare circle would overlap with Mali. Just to gross all of you out as much as I have been grossed out, here are my sightings the last few days. First, there was a wind scorpion in the shower. They aren’t dangerous, they’re just spider-like and extremely gross. Minkailou killed it and that was that. Then, Seydou (from Songo) and Kirill have found two scorpions by the door in the AC room, both of which were squished. I had been sleeping very soundly since I returned because I was living the lie that scorpions were done for the year. Needless to say, that night, I had three consecutive insect nightmares. Finally (and most disgustingly), last night we were sitting in the courtyard chatting when I saw something scurry over. I shone my flashlight on it, and it turned out to be a spider, about the size of a quarter, but it’s entire body was writhing with hundreds of baby spiders. Now, perhaps this would engender feelings of maternal sympathy in some, but it made me want to vomit.
We’re re-painting the AC room on Monday, and you had better believe that I am going to christen it with copious amounts of insecticide.
It seems we’re on the brink of guava season here. Oumar gave me a couple this morning, small, pink inside, and delicious. They say smell is the sense most closely connected to memory in the brain, and I’d believe it. Just smelling the guava on my hands brought back waves of memories of cool, smoky mornings in Delhi, eating breakfast guavas on the terrace with Mikko and Kiira. Soon such memories will be melded through smell with those of Mali. The brain is really a fascinating place.
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4 comments:
Ok, the spider thing sounds totally gross. I would have flipped at that. And scorpions are definitely not my thing. Sorry man. You're right though, the brain is a fascinating place, and isn't it interesting how the things that you would normally be so terrified by your able to handle under completely different circumstances? I know you've gotta be freaked out by the bugs, but it sounds like your handling it unbelievably well. Stay strong. :)
That does it!! You need to come home this minute! No one should be subjected to having to view that spider mass! That place is totally unfit for human habitation.
groossssss
Yes, but does the smell of guava also have a *color*? ;)
I'd say your brain is a more interesting place than most...! :)
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