Blogity Blah Block

I'm having what I will choose to refer to as "Blogger's Block".

I want to write something that is interesting to you, dear reader. I want to write something that makes you think, "wow!" Of course, only wanting to write something interesting is a sure-fire route to monotonous boredom. I've said it before: I'm way past the point where this experience is fresh as muffins and exhilarating as free-falling. I'm at home here. I really can't see myself doing anything else, being anywhere else, at this moment. So, what new experiences are there to write about!? None that seem worth blogging (see: writing home) about. I ran (and biked) around a lot this summer. A lot of the time feeling bad for not being at home, with my puppy, in my house. I was, more or less, working. There were few dull moments. I'm a little nervous--how will I cope with the drawn-out, hazy, humid days of village life again?

And I've got more work to do even before school starts in the first week of October. I had imagined that summer would stretch on forever. That I'd wake up on my creaky cot, sweating at eleven o'clock, and ask "wait...when's market day? I need something to do." As it turns out, there was a short vacation (it seems so long ago!) and a whole lot of work that needed doing. A fat block of business in between the static school year. This time, I can't wait for school to start. I get to stay put.

In another way, maybe all the work I've been doing has kept me up to pace. I'm not ready to slow down, and it wont be hard, now, to jump into it. I'm getting things started on my library project. I've decided to man up and do the leg work of researching book prices. (Until recently, I was too nervous about the inadequacies of my french to do so solo.) But running around today, for the first time, the formerly-daunting Ouagadougou felt like my proverbial oyster. No heckler on the streetside could irk me. No falter of language could slow me down. Only the magnifying sun provoked curses from under my breath. But, that's expected. I feel capable, on top of things, excited. Happy.

It was in this moment that I realized I've been living for the last year in subconscious fear! I'd been nervous about what people wanted from me. I'd become unfriendly to people I didn't know. As soon as I admitted that I AM capable of getting things done here, I quickly shirked my inhibitions. I'm not fearful anymore. I can do anything here--as well, if not better than I could in the so-distant home. I have more at my disposal.

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So, speaking of writer's block, I have a new idea: send me questions! Comment them here or email me. On anything. Burkina's culture. The weather. My thoughts on the french language. What color was the slop I ate for breakfast? Magnets! how the heck do they work? I think this exercise will inject some freshness into this here webpage. I look forward to pontificating.

J

Here are some pictures:

Kids with a snail we found while cleaning my yard.

Landscape engineers.

Girl selling peanuts.

At a bus station.

Some kid somewhere.