BOOKS

TABOO by Jorgen Ruud is an excellent book about Malagache culture. It is the result of twenty years spent living in the country amongst various tribes. I am surprised by the Christian influence I see here, because it was avoided in the book. 

The Prodigal Son is a story about a professor who responded to the call of a painting by helping mentally disabled people. It pronounces each of us to reflect both sons and the father. It is important to me because the calling of the painting reminds me of my path to Madagascar.

Maverick in Madagascar is about a man who walks down the northern half of the west coast of the country in search of information about Vazimba. According to legend, they are pygmies. This book details some typical interactions for a vazaha; they are valuable to me because the author is an experienced traveler.

A Place on Earth, by Wendyl Berry is a book about a fictional town in Kentucky at the end of the second world war. Young people die, old people grow. One point made at the end of the book is that everyone goes through enough to kill them.

Blindness, by Jose Saramago, is a book depicting an epidemic in which people are only able to see white. The ending is not very climactic: I am unsure, after finishing the book, why the blindness struck. 

Meanings in Madagascar, by Oyvind Daal, is an adaptation of a doctoral thesis on the language and culture of the Merina people around Tana. The author spent almost two decades in Madagascar. He uses an analytical tool that his father created to study the difference between frames of reference. The presentation is very good. There are many proverbs in this book. One is, "When walking, be like a chameleon: keep one eye on what you face and the other on what you passed." 

Oranges are not the Only Fruit, by Jeannette Winterton, is about a girl adopted by an evangelical who wants the girl to become a missionary. The girl is a lesbian. Exorcisms are attempted but she is strong. Her story is woven with short fairy tales. My favorite line of the book says that changing things that are not understood is the true nature of evil. 

Emma, by Jane Austen, is a romance novel set in High bury, England. There was no allusion to a war and they use horse drawn carriages. Emma changes from wanting never to marry to appease her widower father to wanting to marry a close family friend dear to both her and her father. She does this by experimenting with the love life of Miss Smith, who is of lower society than she. When Emma finally convinced Harriet she can look to higher society for marriage than that into which she was born, Smith chose the family friend of the Woodhouse family of Emma. After this, Emma realized she loves that man, her Mentor, Mr. Knightly. 

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, is a book about a young boy who commits crimes and listens to classical music. He is betrayed by his gang and sent to jail. After resuming his mischief in jail hen is selected for a program that associates negative feelings with violence. He is let out of jail into a world where police beat people. An author whose wife his gang killed takes care of him until he tries to use him as a political pawn to subvert the corrupt government. He tries to commit suicide when he finds that even classical music give him bad sensations. While hospitalized, a governmental figure plays the same game with him as the author. The trauma rids him of the association between sickness and both crime and classical music. He resumes his life of crime as a young adult until it gets boring for him.

CONVERSATIONS WITH Myself, is a book about Nelson Mandela that gives a personal perspective on the giant of activism. His discipline is admirable and his routine is encouraging. He always says something good about the conversation topic. 

The Nature of Psychotherapy, by Karl Jaspers, is a short book urging those administering care to mentally ill patients to distinguish traditional therapeutics, such as hypnosis and association, from philosophic engagement. The book was nice to read, and but the distinction is silly. In the latter, the doctor acknowledges as a thinking human being while challenging core principle of the patient and bringing those of the doctor up for discussion. To a certain extant, all therapeutics must acknowledge the patient and offer a method of living other than the one by which the patient lives. The book was nice because he suggests that when giving care, the doctor must be objective to the patient while acknowledging that the process is changing both doctor and patient. I said it before, but it made me think that all therapy should be conducted in a classroom, where the teacher is the primary caregiver. This way, there is a standard with which to modulate the doctor patient relationship: the opinion of the class. 

A Case of Curiosities, by Allen Kurzweil, is a novel about a boy who is recognized by an Abby for his drawing skill. The boy is put to work under the Abby as an enameler. He becomes an inventor, relating mechanics to art. There is a lot of misery and art of comedy throughout the book.

The Book of Five Rings is a book by Musashi Miyamoto. It describes the way to strategize as a method of winning that is not dependent on one technique or another but on overpowering the spirit of an enemy. It was very vivid to me in the opening. As the book drew on, I became a bit bored by the frustrations of the writer.

Dhamma Pataka

This post covers the period from April 15 to May 1.

I went from Anzac to the train station in the morning because of the ten o'clock check out time. I found a baggage drop point at the station and after leaving my stuff, I started to roam through the nearby markets. There are a rows of temporary buildings on a raised platform above the trains next to a huge taxi rank. It is sunny and the structures are the white. I ran into Bashir. He offered me some pot. I gave him some Rizzlas. I read until the train left. I talked to a card dealer on the train. After a three hour trip to cover around 125km, I got out at the Worcester station. Someone advised to avoid walking, so I got a lift from the family of the card dealer to a hotel that wanted about one hundred USD for one night. I got someone from the center to take me there. Kevin showed me to room nine.

In the morning, after a group sit, he assigned me to be the helper of Blessing. Blessing is a maintenance guy. We insulated the Dhamma hall in the morning and in the evening, we installed space heaters. I talked to Ziya, a Flemish woman serving long term while I ate. Of course, men and women are not supposed to eat together, so that was a mistake.

The next day, Blessing and I cleaned the hall and put in the mats. People arrived in increasing frequency until the evening meal, miso soup. The orientation was somewhat uneventful.

The course started on the morning of the fifteenth. We took vows of silence. We also promised to abstain from killing, stealing, lying, sex, and drugs. During the first three and a half days of meditation, we focused on breathing, in Anaconda meditation. The first day we are to be aware of the natural breath. When we meditate, we breathe through the nose. The second involves concentration on the nose, to see what sensations arise. On the third day we feel for the touch of the breath, equanimously acknowledging sensations as we encounter them. The aim of the first three days is to develop awareness.

I felt like I was digging out bad habits. As old students, we are not supposed to eat after noon, sleep on luxurious beds, or engage in any form of sensual entertainment. I slept on the floor, took lemon water at tea time, and kept other activities to a minimum. I did wash a lot of clothes throughout the course. Occasionally, I took walks for exercise, but I was careful to avoid both looking at the landscape and being idle in the sun. There was a storm on day one and it was very cold for the next two days. I told the teacher that I have difficulty being aware of my breath without controlling when I inhale.

On day three, Saturday the twentieth, we started Vipassana meditation, a body scan. I underwent immense pain during instructions for this type of meditation. It forced me two change posture twice. I wanted to stick with Anaconda. The discomfort was less intense later. I moderated the pain by using techniques of scanning that that were not yet taught in this course.

On the third day, the instruction is to scan part by part from head to toe. The rule is to. Move from one spot when a sensation is on that spot. On the fourth day we scan the left and right limbs simultaneously. On the fifth, we move from toe to head as well. I tell the teacher that I feel my awareness of the part of the body that I scan. He commended my trouble as an achievement. On the sixth day, the instruction is to increase the area of each piece, cutting back to small pieces when scanning is difficult. I started to follow the daily instructions, with the help of reversion to Anapanna under stress. I asked for permission for these reversion from the teacher on the seventh. He advised me to continue.

On the seventh day, the instructions are the same as the sixth, was but we are to be aware for extended periods of areas where there is either no sensation or a gross sensation. On the eighth day, we practice Vipassana with a free flow from part to part, slowing down to focus on areas on which either no sensations or gross sensations arise. We are also invited to choose a random point on the surface of the body. We are to wait a sensation arise. After one does, we continue. On the ninth day, the main instruction is to continue working without being excited that the course is almost over. Additionally, we can target points on the interior of the body. the tenth day, the instruction is to give metta. That is to feel goodwill towards everything.

On the last few days, I did not change postures very much. I made an effort to stay on the surface of my body as much as possible. There was no instruction to do so. I was curious about my bone structure. I partitioned the parts of my torso based on the the spine. Also, I made an effort to take entire hours for either Vipassana or Anapanna, but not both. Neither was there an instruction for this. I was able to sit over ten hours on the last few days.

Breakfast was a highlight. There was bread and either porridge or oatmeal. Also, both cooked prunes and fruit were available. I drank tea with breakfast and I drank ginger water with lunch. I found there to be too many fennel seeds in a few of the lunches. I unknowingly put way too much Marmite on some bread on the miso night.

There was a big difference between this and the first course I sat. New students were allowed popcorn in the evening! Ugh, it was so intoxicating a smell. I saw two guys use olive oil in a weird way: one drank it straight, another put it is fresh squeezed orange juice.

I met some cool people there. Luc, the male manager, has traveled for ten years. My roommate is an Israeli living in Fish Hoek. He advised me to practice daily and complimented me on being involved at such a young age. The guy next to me was an Californian traveling the world after selling a condominium. A guy, Luyanda, told me about a wedding tradition in which the groom bargains with the parents of the bride about a price for the bride. The funds transfered to the parents go to wedding gifts. I told him about my life during the summer of twenty ten and the following academic year. He was a great listener. Joe a business man who ate a live baby mouse in China. He has a big hard rock album collection. Igor told us that the evolution of humans from the beginning of the universe brought us to the level of involution, in which we look inside ourselves in order to reach the next stage. He is staying for long term service. He eats slowly and moves gracefully. Peter, a new student with whom I ate miso, gave me a chance to put into perspective my previous experience with Goenka teaching. I was not frequently able tell Olwetho from Luyando. I met a cool guy who ate ridiculously fast and slept little. He wrote a fantasy novel when he was thirteen. He asked me, about a orientated of magnets, whether it will lift a car. He is a certified chef and he like to hike.

Marcus is a really genuine guy who believes everything to be findable in anything. We got a ride with Susan from Marissa, a girl from Providence trying to establish an Acro Yoga class in Cape Town. Susan is a a hybrid between a teacher and a caregiver that worked in a chicken factory.

I took a bed in 33 South Boutique Backpackers on Trill Street in Observatory. The main road has a anarchist bookshop. I started a novel by Kurzweil. There was a poetry reading going on behind me. I got a delicious herbal tea. Two guys walked in with some music equipment in the late afternoon. The singer laughed a lot. He had a great voice.

I talked with my parents in the evening. The canned vegetable curry I bought was not good. In the morning of the twenty ninth, I ate some complimentary breakfast. The jam was so delicious. It was made from fruit grown by the owner. Also, were good chocolate muffins. I spent the day in City Center after Madam Taitou, an Ethiopian restaurant. I had a nice thyme tea. I had roasted greens, potatoes with cabbage, and a spiced chickpea blend served with sour wraps and salad. In the evening, a man tells me that when Apartheid ended, another one started. First there was suppression of non whites, now there is suppression of non blacks.

Tuesday was quite hectic, but it was really fun. I went to Wynberg in a taxi bus to retrieve the package my mom sent. I walked through both some busy streets and a beautiful residential neighborhood. I caught Alf while he was working on his bike. I had pasta Primavera in Pasta Primi. I didn't like the olive oil but I sat near a guy who seemed to know about computers. I took another taxi bus to Newlands. I walked through a very ritzy area. Lots of the trim was green and most of the buildings were white. I grabbed some yogurt at a Wackaberry. I tried to get red velvet but I got some berry flavor that totally overpowered the cake batter. I realized, while championing this mistake to offset the difficulty of a prolonged but mild ascent to Newland Ave., that my tastes are changing.

The Malagasy Consulate greeted me a bit awkwardly. I was told by the door guy that visa applications are accepted in the morning and processed in the afternoon. After I assured him I just wanted information, he showed me upstairs. I got a form that I didn't read. Instead, I started talking about staying in Madagascar for a year to learn the language, culture, and rice farming. A woman said I could get a three month visa extended while in the country. A man said that is not alright. He said in this world, people are things. He asked what I am. I said that I am a United States citizen. He says that long term visas are issued to investors, missionaries, and researchers. There is a lot of paperwork to be done well in advance for such issues. He suggests I commence.

I get a delicious vegetable samosa from a Shell station. After taking a bite, I return to the station to ask whether it is really vegetarian. I get on a final taxi bus that is banging hip hop. I am so happy that I get off early to go to a pool hall. I chicken out because people inside glare at me as I approach. Instead, I run some errands. I eat a late dinner.

I spend the first of May on the Internet. My adapter broke so I go to an Internet cafe. I spruce up my resume, buy plane tickets, get a travel plan for one of my bank accounts, and learn that one of my bank cards has outdated information. That account is now frozen until further notice. Lunch I take in a Chinese place. I get my new favorite dish: rice with vegetables and brown sauce. An employee of the hotel anddrives me to the airport. The guy and girl next to me talked about skiing in Vermont. They switched seats abruptly before I joined the conversation.

I have an easy night in Joburg although I did find it odd that there was no sink in the kitchen of the airport hostel. Barcelona had it worse, losing 7-0 to a BAY. Before security in the Cape Town airport, I get a mean bowl of muesli with for and yogurt. It wasn't as good as the Jomsom variety, but diced honeydew is noteworthy.

South Africa

Arrival in Johannesburg

I get into South Africa with little issue. I can stay here until June. I talk to a bunch of cab drivers Shoestrings Airport Lodge. I get in a small cab with a guy. Unfortunately, he doesn't know where it is. Since I don't have the address, I give him the address of a backpackers lodge in the township Soweto. I get totally rinsed on the trip AND the lodge is full. So the receptionist has someone pick me up to take me to a bed and breakfast that is four times the price. The lady who picks me up is a novice driver. She takes me to an cash point so I can keep handing out money. The first one eats the card of the women in front of me. Another one next to a KFC is out of order. Finally, I get some cash from an ATM in a grocery store.

It is not late when I settle into my room. I walk up a hill to some fancy restaurants. Now, the houses in this neighborhood are small. The plots are, by my estimation, between a quarter and a half acre. They all have tall barriers around their perimeters. None of them are two story buildings. The restaurants are fancy and packed. There are some guards in the street. I decide not to eat I am any of these restaurants. The reasons for this are that I am depressed about the amount of money I already spent today, I am not dressed well, and there are fast food joints up the street. On the other hand, to get to the fast food by the ATMs, I do have to walk alone in the dark in a neighborhood new to me.

Fortunately, there are some nice sights: I pass a house in which Mandela lived that has since been converted to a museum. Also, I get a good look at a 458 Italia. I eat in an English style fish and chips place that is out of rolls. I drink grape Fanta with my meal. On the way back, I inspect a memorial for the student uprising of 1976. In my room, I watch a debate on poverty in which Tony Blair argues that government is the key to decreasing poverty.

With two Norwegian girls, I enjoy my own full English breakfast in the morning. I accompany them to Park Station downtown in a taxi bus for one eightieth of the price I paid the taxi last night. I use the Internet cafe to find a place to stay for tonight. I finds four fast food restaurants in the station. None of them have meat other than chicken, which is a shame because I had eggs the morning. So I go to Nanny's and there I order a bunch of side dishes, the best of which is flame grilled corn on the cob with a spicy sauce. I get a peanut butter smoothie for desert and eat while talking to a guy, Brill who works in the station. He takes me to a Vodafone store where I get a $25 data plan for my tablet. This is liberating since I can now use the internet where ever I have phone signal.

My next step is to get a cab to the hotel. It is mid afternoon and the hotel is nearby. A guy in the taxi rank says that it isn't safe for me to walk to the hotel with all my stuff. The cab costs me $10 despite its being 1.5km from the station. Also, this trip is the third time in a row my taxi has been stopped by the police.

The hotel is under construction, but there are dorms available. Alone the a small room with two bunks beds, I am enjoying the WiFi access when Simon enters. He is a hairstylist that is looking for a location to open a cosmetics store. He has a girlfriend in Botswana who studies business. Simon and I go out to eat. I tell him about my plan to live in the bush. He gives me some advice about girls. We talk a bit about meditation before going to sleep. I get ripped up by mosquitoes in the night because my skin is not tough, no one turns off the light, and there is a broken Window.

In the morning I get breakfast at a posh cafe across from the hotel. I read about John McAfee in the January 2013 issue of Wired magazine. I walk by many nice spots around lunchtime in order to eat KFC... It was worth it. I see the movie, Django, at the Rosebank at night. Where are those guys from that are taking Fox and others to the mine at the end? Fox makes a slick cowboy. Really everyone was good. The scene where the dentist tells of Hilde was wild as they danced around the personal space of the other. Hilde really seemed to understand the style of Tarantula.

View from Joberg Hostel

Because I found some mosquito repelling coils, I am able to stay up late using my damn data plan and I miss the train to Cape Town in the morning. At the train station I eat at Nandos again to try their chicken. For fifty rand I get a leg and thigh (1/4 chicken...) with a bowl of spinach. It's alright but it makes my nose run even though I ordered mild. For sixty rand, I got a chicken burger, four wings, chips, and mashed potatoes at KFC. Since I wasn't full from Nandos I got some bitong, which is South African beef jerky. I bought a hardcover about Mandela before leaving the station.

So I got a room in Melville International Backpackers lodge to see a different part of town. I meet a German dude, Chris, who finished his bachelors, worked for a year, then started traveling. The place has WiFi with unlimited data between 8am and 10am. Chris and I talk about energy use because his background is in the economics of oil and natural gas. We go to a bar with some Dutch chicks from from he hostel. They are here to study the relationship between parents and students for a bachelor thesis. Everyone is really polite at dinner. I have a mushroom risotto that is pretty good. The gin and tonic is way to strong. I switch a two hundred rand bill for two one hundreds.

In the morning I laze around eating some bread another lodger left. Eventually I get on a mini bus to go to town. I saw the cab driver that took me to Melville. He shouted out to me. I scurry around trying to get on the right bus. I buy a button down shirt to keep warm. It is packaged and I don't bother to try on this fine blue piece of apparel. The package says it contains a large long sleeve shirt with a sixteen point five inch collar. The lady at the counter does not accept the hundred rand bill that I got from one of the Baltic peoples I went to dinner with last night. She says that it is smudged. I pay with some other bill and I resume my quest for the Apartheid Museum. No one seems to know what it is. I get on a bus. While waiting for it to fill, I see the host of the hostel I which I am staying doing some shopping. I forget his name so I don't say anything. We depart. After a short distance, the driver stops and asks whether I am going beyond the museum. I say no, he points to a museum. I get out. I go into the Museum of Africa because it is free and here I am. I see a nice exhibit on political cartoons. Yalo is a prominent figure.

After an hour, I go get some food at a corner store. I get fried fish, a spicy bean and onion salad, and a peach Tropika juice with that smudged one hundred rand bill. The juice gets a ten out of ten. Get more, world. Anyway, I go to a wild taxi rank under a building. I pay a guy who direct me to a taxi under the advice of its driver. Then we talk the driver takes me to the Apartheid Museum, I pay him. Luckily, I spent only a buck fifty on the trip, redundant pay included.

The museum is cool. I receive a non white ticket, so I have to go through a certain door. The story starts with the discovery of gold in a land where natives have ancestors from easy back. There's a rugby group parading around, but they hardly get in the way of the exhibits. The temporary exhibit on Mandela features a 37 painting portrait of him throughout his career. I get a coffee half way through. On my way back to the spot I left off I see Chris. I finish looking through the museum. Chris is still there when I get to the end of the account of the oppression of the non white people. We wait for his guide.

I go to the Spar grocery store. The prices are good: a bunch of snacks for traveling tomorrow run me eleven bucks. When I return, no one is around to go out to eat, so I go to a Mexican place a block away. I get a fat portion of nachos. Oh, but, before dinner, I had a delicious mint Magnum.

I sort out my Nexus in the morning of the fifth so I can enjoy it on the train. I take a cab to the train station. In Park Station, I get a chicken samosa, some Chicken Licken wings, and more snacks for the ride. When I am in the snack shop I see an old lady following a boy around my age. She asks me whether I am coming or going. I start to say I am leaving. Before I finish, she tells me the boy got robbed right outside the station in broad daylight. I don't think to ask the boy whether he is alright. The lady and a store clerk start a rant about safety and such.

I am in economy class, with two seats for the first six hours. There are lots of kids in the car. This is good because I feel safe enough to take out my tablet. Never was crying a problem. I was really impressed with the mother sitting in front of me. As soon as her girl made a peep, the mom was up wrapping the baby to her back with a towel. She started a little jig and the baby was placid in seconds. Another thing of note about the ride: there were a lot of vendors walking the aisles selling things like beer, cigarettes, chips, ice cream, and candy. The scenery of the last few hours, from about eleven to four on the sixth, was really beautiful. It started out like Arizona with small mountains in the distance. Eventually, the tracks seemed to be the only thing at the bottom of a valley.

CAPETOWN

I stop at a top notch KFC to relieve my hunger before heading to a hostel. I had a wrap with fried chicken, a hash brown, and mayo. It reminds me of the Chrunchwrap Supreme by Taco Bell. The cab is not expensive.

Capetown Backpackers is a really nice place. I talk to family until like ten o'clock in the evening. I haven't had a conversation with Sam for too long. Anna looks healthy. My parents are really taking care of me even though they are so far away. I get some Thai food at a place around the corner. I meet a drummer named Claude. He takes me around Long Street. We look for a spot to play pool but we have no luck. I agree to meet Claude in the morning to smoke pot, but I don't get out of bed in time. Am I now, too lazy to smoke?

Ugh ok on Sunday I laze around. You know I walk down long street looking for a long sleeve shirt. I get an ice coffee in a market. There I sit next to a group of about eight, one of which is a girl. I stop in the store that I had the shirt I like most. It is made in Nepal. None of them fit right so I dip back into the cold. I go to a service on sex at the Common Ground Church with Shirley and Sam. I start to think that Christians have to give up on either marriage or abortion to maintain position of on one of the two. I liked the bit in which the speaker quotes Jesus saying if one arm does bad, chop it off the body. That is why I switched hands: my right arm did wrong.

Dinner at Shirley was with the aforementioned Tobias' and two other girls: Nike and Sipokazi. The former is a houseguest of Shirley. She is starting an orphanage. She studied philosophy at Leeds. She went into finance in Dubai where she met the latter, the who works for the UAE airline. We talked about the church service. We mostly talked about the cause of the recession. Sipokazi told us that a man she was serving died while flying. Sam gave me a synopsis of her job at an Internet marketing company. Shirley is a wonderful woman who teaches art from her home. The women were really a pleasure for me.

The following morning, that of the seventh, I studied both philosophy and math. In the afternoon I went to the waterfront. I walked around a really fancy mall looking for a shirt like the one Serif wears in the movie, Matrix Reloaded. A button down with no color will suffice. I ended up with a ten dollar button down shirt from Pick 'n Pay. It's got a collar. I enjoyed both space heaters and a White Russian at a bar outside the mall.

Dinner I ate on the Waterfront, at Moyo. The waiter brought me a bowl and a pitcher of aromatic water for me to wash my hands. The bread was like pita bread but softer, thicker, and more moist. It was very good. I got fish with very nice breading. It was beady. The cheese plate I got at the end was the best. It was local cheese served with a toasted bread, fruit, and jam. I enjoyed all this with a too tall stout.

I watched the first half of the Manchester United versus Manchester City fame in a bar, Raffiki, near Cape Town Backpackers. In the morning I got myself out of that hostel. I made my way about half a click to another hostel that has pool tables, Anzac.

After settling, I head towards Long Street. On the way I stop for some groceries. I eat a dough all that is as big as half of my head. I get some turkey food on the way to Lion's Head, a peak separating Camps Bay from Longstreet. It was such a climb. I was panting. But the views were breathtaking so I still think I am in shape...

I make myself some rice with MSG for dinner. Wow, it was good. I can't believe the English don't get to enjoy the luscious flavor enhancer. I met Keenan, John, Mathew, Kohls, and Hannah at the hostel. Great people they are. John and Hannah were generous with swaz. The former is an ex call center boss from Johannesburg talking up the culinary art in Cape Town. The latter is both a DJ and a photographer. Keenan and I had only brief contact but he has some nice red shoes. Mathew is a German who likes Cape Town and he does some wild looking graphing on his tablet. Kobus is a guru of pleasantries. He is also quite willing to discuss spirituality.

The morning of the tenth was more busy for others than for me. I mixed sweet corn and rice for breakfast. Mateus was fooling around on his command station. I caught the last half of a service in a nearby church. I bought a small book by Karl Jaspers in the church used book store. I read for a bit in Company's Garden. Mateus met me in the street on his way to get peanuts for the squirrels. He suggested I go to Camp's Bay. I agreed, so he put me on a bus. It is a regular tourist attraction. In retrospect it was sort of like Laguna Beach. I read some of a book by Goethe while eating a grocery store sandwich. Since it is like a play I am reading it aloud.

Health notes: I have a rash on my left knee. My new nail is rotting.

I enjoyed a delicious chocolate shake in a restaurant, Primi, on the beach. There I finished watching the cartoon, Escaflowne. It features a guy trying to control fate like an ancient civilisation using human will as energy. Well, at the beginning, the guy represented the influence of consumers on television shows they watch.

Back in Cape Town, I got some dinner in a restaurant Claude recommended that serves Asian food. After spilling my Lassi, I met a guy who was peeling hard boiled eggs while he told me that Jaspers must be smart. I don't realize I need to hand my receipt to the chef. Reading the book, I learn that a component of psychotherapy is showing people they are worthy by discussing their organizing principles.

Bashir, a young guy who became homeless five months ago, and I eat dinner on a bench. He tells me that he liked to ride trains. Now the guards do not let him. His course is electrical engineering. In the evening I watched a crazy version of Spiderman that I never heard of before. It is better than the one with Kristen Dunst but it seems to be lower budget.

On the morning of the eleventh I buy a red shirt at a store Johan recommended. I visit and laundromat and I visit an Internet cafe to sort out my tax return. There were no upsets to this schedule. I lounge at Anzac for much of the afternoon. Kobus tells me he had a row with a colleague while he is preparing for a team building meeting. I head north on Longstreet until a bus guy offers a ride to Green Point. I visit Sea Point first. I eat a Hake fish cake that finally make me forget about the sweet, cloudy, giant dough ball I ate a few days ago. Then I walk through Greens Point until I get to the stadium. I get in a bus to Longstreet. I can't commit to any spots on Longstreet so I try to walk back to the lodge. There I smoke with Johan. I try to meditate but I fall asleep. I awake from my own farting. Unhappy, I continue meditating until I feel like I tried.

The morning of the twelfth was both wild and hectic. I finished the book by Jaspers at a Parisien patisserie, Cassis. There is no way for me to avoid the conclusion that I enjoyed the atmosphere despite spending five USD on tea and an apple treat.



My next mission was Table Mountain. I decided to take the cable car. It had no polls to support the cables. Actually, I learned from Errol, an employee, a thick stationary cable supports two that move. The floor of the cable car rotates. I descended on foot. It was quite pleasant. I had snacks enough for me and a blackbird with orange on the bottom of the wingtips. Two ladies picked me up as I was walking back of the the road and they took me all the way to my hotel. How nice is that?

In the evening I talked with all the boys. The main thing we were talking about was whether it was good for the world that China is getting ahead of the United States. Some notion I had of politeness is just unsuitable for this environment.

 

In the morning I arise at 10. Oh and my appointment with a doctor is at 10:15. I make it there by twenty to eleven. The doctor has a look at the boils on my knee right away. He hopes the cause is Staphylococcus and he fears it is something from Madagascar. He  pops the pustules for both cleaning and sampling. Eighty US bucks and one giant carrot cake later, I find myself in a park on all sorts of biotics.

On Sunday I go to Simon's Town from Cape Town via a one hour SOUTHBOUND train. It is quaint. I have sushi. I read philosophy on a hill. I talk to a girl from Chicago on the train ride back. She just started to meditate. I get a great pizza from Sgt. PEPPERS ON Longstreet. It has salami. 

Reading Spot

Korobo Tours

I am writing in the back seat of a 4x4in the afternoon of the 16th of March. It is the second day of the Korobo tour so I will back track to the return from Beandry for completeness. We just left a small town (Tsihombe) in between Ambovombe and Cape St. Marie. There were some concrete buildings. We had lunch in what seemed to be the town center. The restaurant had posters of Jesus, J-Lo, Beyonce, and 50 Cent. It was nice that we had only to wait to get our orders right before eating because there were so many flies.

We drove 45km this morning. We left Tsymanakiarake around 9am. We stopped at a zebu market in Ambondro. The watermelon was really refreshing. It has red seeds here! We tried some peanut brittle. I bought a some rope made of sisal for an extra clothes line because I lost the long one I used when we returned from Andramanaka. Also, I was not careful. Firstly, I didn't use sunscreen on my face because I have a painful pimple I didn't want to rub. I hope I dot get sun damage that worsens the condition of my face. Secondly, I stepped in zebu poo. I had to wash my foot in a puddle. I washed with my other foot like I learned to do on the roof of the house of the family of Suraj in Katmandu. Also, Joanne, Ruth, and Declan bought mats that can be made very compact. They are more pliable than the other we got in Anosy. They have designs down the middle of their length but they cost about three times as much as the one from St. Luce that I brought.

We had eggs three ways with toast, tea, and coffee for breakfast. I had warm zebu milk with honey after my first cup of tea. Dinner the previous night was zebu brochette with vegetable curry. It was bedtime when we finally ate so dinner table discussion descended, as it has many times in the last week, into the ethics of eating both chicken and chicken egg in the same day. I am against the the practice because it is insulting to chickens and it is excessive. People tell me to eat free range chicken instead of this tom foolery. I don't have faith in products claiming distinguished quality of life for animals that are bred and raised to be slaughtered and eaten.

Anyway, before dinner, we saw an Ombiasa. He is a healer. There is a cabinet full of bees in the corner. There is also a pot containing a things like a bottle, sunglasses, a cap, and a cup full of a dark goo. We watched him paint the forehead and stomach of a lady who suffered from a stomach ache. He used some white, chalky substance, water, a stick, and board to make the paint. After he asked us whether we had any questions. I ask what a spirit is. He says that spirits are ancestors. The room is so cramped that my right leg is touching the left leg of Ruth and I am leaning on James. The Ombiasa asks weather we want help. Declan volunteers. A bee lands on my forehead. It crawls down my nose. The healer asks weather Declan is from a country with cars. Declan says that he is. The spirit possessing the healer is from the military. Declan and the military man dance to the music of a string instrument and pellets in a can. The prediction is that Declan will get a good job before he goes back to school.

Before seeing the Ombiasa we have a tour of Tsymanakiarake. There is a nice school that is accompanied by good latrines. It is weird to be surrounded by predominantly flat ground. The tour helps us digest our huge lunch in Ambovombe. Claude went to secondary school here. The settlement is large. There must be thousands of people within the city limits. All the structures are wooden. The streets are red sand. The highlight of the lunch for me is a shredded carrot salad. We also eat a cactus fruit. It is green and gooey. It looks like a kiwi and tastes like a honeydew melon. The cactus looks just like a prickly pear. In fact, though the plant is very common in this region, it was imported from Mexico.

We departed on the morning of the fifteenth after crepes, and doughnuts, and orange juice at Lanirano. The vehicle is a right hand drive Toyota Land Cruiser. With the driver, and we are seven. It is great to be on the road. Our first stop is a market near Ft. Dauphin. We get some bananas, oranges, and and we buy honey from lychee trees. Later on in the 110km drive, we stop at a roadside stand. There are wood carvings on sale. They are mostly lemur and chameleon models. They are made by Androy people with wood from Anosy. I see a few buildings built by the Japanese. Just before stopping for lunch, surpass a sisal farm. The plant is grown in proper rows as far as the eye can see. The factory uses the plant to make rope. It starts life looking pretty similar to the spikey bush that is all over my lawn at home in Arizona.

Now, before coming to our stay in Cape St. Marie on the sixteenth, I need to talk a bit about our time in Lanirano at the end of the Pioneer scheme. We got back from Beandry on Sunday the 10th. We take Monday off from work. Romaine hosts a birthday party at his house across the street from the Azafady office. There is pasta with zebu, and rice with chicken. Lots of soda is consumed and we snack on something the shape of a French nch fries that tastes more like fried dough. It is quite crunchy, greasy, and irresistible. Lou, Declan, and me go to Libanona after lunch. We swim, race on the beach, and play pool.

We meet the rest of the pioneers, Sarah, Sam, and Theo for dinner at Mami Abelle's. Theo encourages me about the future of solar power with Azafady. He has discussed with Mark outfitting the office in Ft. Dauphin. I suggested a project for the bush. I talked to Sam about bees. She is developing beekeeping for the purpose of earning profit on honey for the people of St. Luce. She wants to sell it Ft. Dauphin where it fetches a lot more than it does in the bush. I get a fish and a massive portion of rice for what works out to two bucks. Also, I drank ginger beer made by a brand called Stoney. We all go home after dinner.

On Tuesday, I do data entry in the office with Aven and Declan. We enter all the survey data and write blog entries for both the sanplat construction in Lanirano and surveys in Mananara II. Aven and Declan at the annoyed with me for wanting to simplify the data. When Jo shows up to see how we are doing, he says that we are supposed to enter all the data written in the notebooks. We start again. We finish at five o'clock.

The Pioneer have dinner at Island Vibe. Everyone is in high spirits and we take lots of pictures. It is top notch food made by a young Indian man. The server is from Lexington, MA. He is half a year older than me and played Hingham in lacrosse. We stay late for drinks. I talk to the owner. She a retired dancer who has been in business since she was twenty eight. Conversation with her was very refreshing. She goes to bed after telling me the reasons behind her positive stance on euthanasia. We go skinny dipping with the young men before catching a cab home. Declan gets some bad news from home via a text.

The next day is less awesome. We go back to Island Vibe for lunch. I arrive late because I am busy with laundry. Sarah and Yvonne are there. I drink a Piblasse liquor while waiting for food. It is made from a fruit that grows in the Highlands. Everyone enjoys their food. I sing a song after lunch with a guitar accompaniment. Aven says that it is the slowest song she ever heard. We head to Le Local for billiards. I am learning to play pub pool. Declan is pretty good. The Pioneers meet Tsina in Freedom at half four. She read our reviews and wants to discuss our responses. After the meeting, the a lot of the staff shows for drinks and snacks. I talk with Louis about my travel plans. I leave alone around 8pm because I have a headache. For some reason, I smoked a lot of cigarettes today. I watch two episodes of the show Escaflowne in the school. It is enthralling. There are swordsman, sword fighting mechs (Guylefs), demons, high school students, and there is some teleportation.

I shut of the lights to sleep not two minutes before Alley and James burst into the school. Alley orders James to get his sleeping bag and mat out of his rucksack. They are both quite drunk. I help James into a suitable sleeping position and I dress a wound Alley sustained on the walkway in order our camp. The rest come comeback from club Florida between half eleven and half one. People are roudy, so I am rude.

In the morning, Matt, Delphine, and Louis leave. Some people are sad. I feel a sense of completion. I do more laundry because I don't want to carry dirty clothes around for ten days on the Korobo tour. The remaining pioneers, our guides, our coordinator, and James meet at Escale for lunch. The orange juice is top notch. I get poisson frite thinking that it will come with fries since steak frite comes with fries. It is actually fried fish with rice. Eric orders some sauce to go with my rice. I drink rice tea and eat yogurt after the meal. The rice tea tastes a little burned and the yogurt is a bit sour. They go so well together. I come to respect the posturing of Sarah amidst the complicated relationships between the pioneers. I tell Eric that I will look up Raja yoga.

We spend some of the afternoon using the Internet and we spend the rest at the beach. Aven is not going on the Korobo tours but she is still with us. She is not feeling well. She suspects that the food at Freedom is to blame. She did try zebu for the first time. We try out the old Mami Jo's for dinner. It is excellent and cheap. Declan leaves with Aven because she is not feeling well. Joanne, Ruth, James, and I stay. I find myself in a pause while packing when we return. I attribute it to tiredness, so I go right to sleep. The events of this paragraph precede those of the sixth.

 The camp at Cape St. Marie

It is three o'clock when we arrive in Cape St. Marie. The camp is really well established. There is solar power, water collection, and a, passive solar stove. On the wall of the office is data on the visitors over then last few years. There are long drop latrines and showers with conduits for the water to flow. Another nice feature of the site is the roofed tent areas. We play Frisbee before setting up camp because we were so long on the road. I read, and watch Escaflowne and catch up on this blog before we eat. The meal is outstanding. Claude got us each a lobster. He made fresh tomato sauce for curly pasta (The first pasta that wasn't a noodle I ate in Madagascar). To finish there was a cucumber salad. Declan does not eat dinner due to illness. The rest of us tourist play James' version of Rummey with Amza, our driver. It is a thirteen round game that lasts a about two hours. Ruth sleeps in my tent as there are only four tent spots. She is sick in the evening. Worse and worse it gets. She is in and out of the tent all night. Declan and Claude both help keep her company. The condition persists into the morning. After cereal, Joanne, James, Declan, Claude, and Amza go to the Cape. I read and study and sleep and sit by Ruth. We are on our way again at three in the afternoon on the seventeenth. There is hope that today we can contact a doctor for Ruth. Her health improves the before we arrive in Lavanino. She is still ill, and but the intensity is lower.

Relaxing in Lavanono

The hotel is on the beach. We have three of four rooms. The rooms are nice: foam mattresses, mats lining the interior of tin roofing, and patio. I surf with James after a pancake breakfast. I don't stand for long. The rest read. Declan is back into the book, Moby Dick. We have an orange fruit after lunch that day tastes like orange melon and feels like a well boiled potato. The dressing is of both lemon and sugar. After lunch, we take it easy. Claude is busy preparing for the evening. In the course of an evening hour, we get high on marijuana, and play a game of Euchre, slaughter a goat, receive our cleaning laundry from the hotel staff, and welcome a band. I stay up late talking to James about the differences between education in the USA and education in Australia. Everyone was very polite in Taelongo Hotel in Lavanino. It was great to spend a day in one spot.

On the 19th, we have over 200km to drive. Claude has instigated two stops before eleven am. We have lots of food. Maybe we won't stop for lunch in order to make the journey to Ejeda today.

We arrive before nightfall. The town is a like a Malagache truck stop with its motels and restaurants. There are soldiers hanging out around the taxi brousse parking lot, but which is the main street of the town. We have a quiet meal because half of the people at our table can see a television playing Malagasy news. A Malagasy student died because he could not pay his medical costs.

 Toyota Land Crusher

The hotel is a two minute drive from the main street. Bungalows are wrapped around a clearing. Declan and James share the luxury suite. Ruth is not thrilled with her room. Night five on a mattress since I left home is warm but there are not many bugs. It's a good job that there are not many bugs because the mosquito net does not come down to the mattress.

We are very punctual this morning. Breakfast is at the same restaurant. We get three fried eggs and half of a baguette. We share sweet rice with zebu brochette, and guava. Conversation is about gun control and government housing. Jo thinks Australia, the US, and the UK should open there borders to one another.

this is a tomb...

By nine o'clock we stop for cake. At noon we stop for a rest at a place where our driver, Amza seems to know people. I have some nice yogurt and a cassava ball. We get to Tolear in the evening. Ours is Hotel Manatane. It has wifi and it is a seaside hotel. We go out for dinner to a restaurant that has a wide screen television playing cartoons. James does feel well. Declan, Ruth, Jo, Joanne and I go to a bar near the hotel. We talk about the prostitution. We agree that it needs to be regulated and that there need to be more options for young women. Then we talk about charity. I realize that charities take pressure to provide the basic needs off of governments.

I am ill halfway through the night. I am not in much pain but my stomach is upset. Fever sets in over the course of the next day, the 21st, on which we travel to Mangily. I am privileged enough to sit in the front of the taxi brousse. The ride is not easy. We spend a lot of time parked. We arrive at Hotel Le Coq du Village around two in the afternoon. It is on the beach too. I stay in the room all day and night. I have a fever and diarrhea.

I feel alright in the morning. I eat breakfast with the rest under a large tamarind tree across the street. There is an outdoor restaurant selling lots of good food for very reasonable prices. I have a crepe with baobab honey. We go to the baobab forest in a zebu cart after breakfast. The cart has car tires. The ride is very smooth and zebu can move fast. In the forest we learn that there are a lot of baobab lookalikes and that the real one in this forest has leaves like a cannabis plant. We learn of one plant that helps with ones sexuality and another that is used to waterproof boats. The latter is also used to catch birds like a spider web catches insects. I am still a bit weak.

We spend the afternoon relaxing. I read with Ruth and I watch cartoons. In the late afternoon, we go on a walk around the village. It is quite an establishment. There are about 8000 people in this village. The main street is packed with vendors. We stop at an orphanage. The company is Eau De Coco in Europe. Here it is known as ONG Bel Avenir. The facility is green with solar power and water recycling. The purpose is to provide environmental educations for kids and to give kids a haven. A very luxurious onsite hotel provide income to fund the projects. We are invited to dance in the evening. We see those who invited us at a restaurant next door to our hotel at a time beyond the scheduled dance commencement. Declan, Claude, and James go clubbing. Ruth, Jo, Joanne and I sit and gossip.

We go snorkeling in a pirogue that has a sail on the morning of the twenty third. It is so nice to be on the water. We go early: when the winds are weak. There was no wetsuit, so I couldn't snorkel for too long... I kept getting scared. I swam into some seaweed and when I emerged there was a a swordfish as big as my leg in front of me. One of the boat drivers was on our forest tour yesterday. Declan and I take opposite stances on the government bailout of the Big Three.

When we return we smoke whilst playing Rummey. I lose:( I have duck with tomato sauce for lunch. It is a bit tough. I read and relax in the afternoon. We have fruit juice at the bar next door before to the Rhumerie for a buffet. It is awesome. There are sea urchins and oysters and all sorts of things. A large band plays near our table. A line of dancers is right next to me. There are a lot of vazaha. Prostitution is a prominent subject for us. We see a lot of old white men with young black women. I talk with James about birds after dinner.

We finish reading the book, Emma!

The next day is very relaxing. James and Declan are late to rise. When Jo and Claude get back from a run, they round up the boys for breakfast. Ruth and I chill in the room for a bit longer before another wonderful meal under the tamarind tree. I read and write for much of the day, making good progress on the book by Carnap. Ruth and I opt out of lunch. We play Frisbee on the beach. I watch some cartoons. We all go to a local restaurant for dinner. I did well to order seafood spaghetti! Ruth and Jo talked a mile a minute. Claude told me to watch the movie, and Tai Chi Master, with Jet Li. Ruth and I smoke on the beach after dinner. It is peaceful.

 Mangily, from our room

She is begins feeling badly about halfway through the night. There is a lot of com motion about catching the taxi brousse in the morning. I take my time with breakfast because I plan to stay with Ruth until she feels well enough to make the journey. I meet a photographer and his wife. They offer to help Ruth. They ask me about how we are getting around.

Ruth and I spend the morning between the room, beach, and and tamarind tree. I am reading the book, Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. Also, I begin,The Book of Five Rings, by Miyamoto Musashi. I talk French with a guy who helped us with the pirogue, weed, and zebu cart. He helps organize a cheap taxi ride for us back to town after lunch.

When we arrive we find that the others had a tire go flat twice on their trip in a taxi brousse. Claude and Jo are still at lunch. I use my tablet to surf with the hotel wifi. James is upset about the Formula 1 result. I am upset that Vet tel regrets racing because I think team orders are against the rules. Is Snickers from the UK or the US. I learn that the name, Snickers, is of a racehorse active in England in 1930. The Mars corporation of the United States, founded in 1911, released the Snickers candy bar around 1930. In the UK, it carried the label, Marathon. This is an example of the confusion that arose between me and the British.

We have such a nice meal at an Italian restaurant in Tolear. This is the night of the 25th. The pizza has a firm, light, and thin crust. The cheese is thick. There are some nice fruit smoothies as well. I have vanilla ice cream with freshly caramelized sugar. I drink copious amount lemoncello after the meal. We went straight back to the hotel after dinner.

Oh, but on the way to that meal, we took a Pousse Pousse. Actually, since these man driven carriages hold two people, we took three. These are single axle carriages. Declan and James were last in our procession as we neared the restaurant. From our spot in the middle we hear a loud clap. I dismiss the noise. Claude turns. A support on their carriage snapped. These poor boys are on their backs while the driver slides down the pull rods. After being pulled out of the vehicle, they are laughing as they walk toward me. They've got scuffs on the inner elbows and James is having a tough time looking towards the left. It was pretty scary but after I didn't have to take a Pousse Pousse to keep up with the group.

On the morning of the twenty sixth Claude and Jo left for Tana. I went around town with Ruth. I found some movies, a hat, and some pencils. We talked about the relative location of the word for an object seen. I like to imagine the word, notebook, for example, written in an ever changing way on my notebook. Otherwise, as with Declan the image of the book is immediately transformed into the word. Or, at the other end, for James, he says that when he sees a book, his mouth says book. I think Ruth sort of labels things. The question that got the conversation started was, "Do you think Inn pictures or words?", which I asked the boys, yesterday, over a j. We had lunch in the hotel. They, the Hotel Manatane have the best lemonade I have had in Madagascar.

 Monsieur leDec

We go out to the same place as we first ate at in Tolear. I wanted to go someplace new but not everyone felt like walking around at night in unfamiliar city in a foreign country. The pool table at this place isn't nice. The seafood taco I got was delicious. Ruth and I told Declan and James about the night in Andramanaka when I offered Ruth a game to play on my tablet while she was enduring events of a painful phone conversation. Those boys went back to the hotel after a short chat in a bar, Bo Beach, about euthanasia. It ought not always be permitted but I do think illegality of suicide confusing.

 hotel restaraunt in Tolear

Declan leaves with a handshake in the morning, good man that he is. There are some dope pastries in the hotel restaurant. Our ride showed up on time. It was an hour before we got out of town because of the bank, gas, and a police checkpoint. Still, we arrived in Ranohira by two in the afternoon and we stopped to buy proper rice cakes (sweet, sour, filling, clean). The driver of our petrol Peugeot sedan is Mami. He is a small old man. Our guide in Ranohira is Dadi. He helped us organize a trip to Isalo national park for the twenty eighth. We met some other travellers who are willing to share the price of a tour but it is pretty steep. The land is like a prairie and there are like tabletop hills.

 Ruth Brooker in the backseat of the sedan Mami drives 

Hotel Alice is real nice. They have a bunch of well furnished bungalows on a hill that looks out over a little flatland to a small mountain range. James smashes me and Ruth in a game of Railway before dinner. In the morning, we decide to leave our bags in the rooms against advice given by Koto, a man we met on our arrival. We leave for Isalo at half seven with a couple and some snacks.

 Bungalows at Hotel Alice

One of the couple is a German girl researching sustainable livelihood in Mahafali, a region south of Tolear. The other is a man from Pennsylvania who is teaching the history of ethics at a university in Tolear. They met at an agricultural school in Germany.

The tour starts at the base of a cliff. We climb on a path, stopping to observe tombs in the sides of the cliff faces. The park is accessible to people of the Bar tribe for religious purposes. We reach a plateau and walk along for a while. She The rocks are sandstone. There is tall grass in the ground that is not too steep. There are many varieties of tapia tree. Some are home to silk worms. We walk a ways on the plateau. Eventually we descend into a tropical ravine for a snack by a pool. The pool is shallow because the recent cyclone filled it with sand. On our way to a lookout point, we stop because our guide sees a praying mantis. He points to a branch of a bush and gives us five minutes to find the insect. We can't until he pokes it with a stick.

 James is feeling alright after too many kms of walking for me

From the lookout point, I am reminded a bit of the Grand Canyon because there is a maximum height for the multitude of rock formations in view. I find a compass carved into a slab. Susie disagrees with me about the direction of Berlin. We walk to a crest that looks out over the town. Birds like crows with white vests fly around us on the cliff.

 Isalo

A long descent leaves my legs shaking in a tropical area. We see some lemur before setting off up a river. After a short walk, we have a swim in the a pool at the bottom of a waterfall. I find a praying mantis in a hole just above water level. After, we have snacks. The couple gives us half an avocado, which greatly enhances my eating experience experience to the status of lunch. We are off to another, bigger waterfall before the end of the tour.

 Isalo Pool

We go back to the hotel to meet Mami who agreed to takes us to Fianarantsoa for the same price as a taxi brousse. As we load up the hotel staff ask for extra money because we did not have our stuff out of the room by eleven o'clock. It is a bit ridiculous because there are hardly any other guests, but we feel we have no choice but to pay...

Our ride to Fianar is pretty comfortable but it is dark when we arrive. The city so ems massive. We check in a hotel near the taxi brousse station. Before sleeping we try to get some dinner. We get some water chinese soup. I take a taxi to an atm before returning to the hotel. Mami helps us get on a taxi brousse early on the morning of the twenty ninth. We give him some extra cash. Before leaving, the taxi brousse people ask for extra cash because our bags are too heavy. Again, we feel obliged.

The ride is quite long. There are small, tall, sturdy house clustered amidst vast fields and terrace of rice for most of the journey. Anstirabe seems really well established. It puts into context the poverty we saw in Anosy. I talk with Ruth about traveling while we are squashed together in the fifteen passenger van scooting across the countryside. She says that who we are depends a lot on both what we have and where we mature.

We go out to a Korean restaurant after settling into Hotel Isoraka in then old colonial part of Tana. I am so happy to have rice instead of bread. Ruth and I tell James about our the social development of the Pioneers including how we all learned of couplings.

The upper lip of Ruth swells during then night. The lip is normal by morning. I bring her some pastries from a boulangerie across the street. Then I go to the internet cafe down the road to settle arguments: cement is heated limestone, cars in the UK average 38mpg... I have breakfast with James before going back to the internet cafe to get a flight back to Madagascar. I need a ticket out of South Africa to get into the country since I don't have a visa. After a lot of hullabaloo, I get my parents, who are vacationing on the Dingo Peninsula in Ireland, to sort out the voyage for me. I have Paella for lunch next to the market. At the market I buy boat shoes, dress pants, and a collared shirt for $25. We meet with Claude and Jo at a Middle Eastern joint that does food, massage, WiFi, and hookah. I am sad that Ruth is leaving tonight and I am happy that people react so much to my change of attire.

Ruth leaves at ten in the evening. I write a little of a paper about the article, The Two Dogmas of Empiricism, by Quine. I sleep late into the morning of the thirty first of march. I have breakfast with Jo, James, and Claude. I am really happy for all of them-and Ruth too. Exciting changes must be around the corner for the older ones and the young two are continuing to travel.

 Louis, expressing himself

I added labels to the post because I thought they were captions for the pictures. I think they are actually like tags on YouTube that serve a function of which I am not aware.