i kinda feel like jesus christ

ok maybe he's not quite the right person to compare myself to. actually this will be a terrible comparison and i will probably go to hell for it. but you know how when he was crucified and all, he was in all that pain with every step he took, you know, because he got lashed and all? well my situation is not exactly like his but pain with every step wouldnt be a huge over-exaggeration. the amount of thorns and spikes and needle like seeds/rocks in the sand in my area is beyond bordering excessive. pretty much every couple of steps i take, i have to pause to remove a spike from my feet or a thorn that has pierced through my flip flops and is sticking into me. i'd like to think of myself as becoming more weathered, more rugged, maturing physically. and there are more cases to attest to this physical abuse my body has to withstand.

the other day, i was riding a bus car back to my village, you know the ones where i sit on top and the cars drive too close to trees. well, i guess i wasnt paying attention for a split second and WHAM! i get smacked by an acacia thorn tree. for a second, i thought my eye was leaking. turns out there was a cut/scratch on my eyelid right where my eyelashes were... aka way too close to my eyeball for my comfort.

the cuts arent deep but thats not the point. in this country, there's just too much sand and dust and shit in the air. im totally going to scar. but hey, i got scratched by a lion whilst i was in africa... right?

as i await the arrival of funding for my causerie project, ive decided to build "improved mud rocket stoves". ideally, they cut down wood consumption, speed up cooking time, as well as decrease the prevalence of upper respiratory infections due to smoke irriation from the cooking fire. that's if i built everything right, in terms of dimensions, raw material ratios, whatnot. well, now i gotta wait 3ish weeks for the stove to dry til we can try it out. that means 3 weeks of kids not breaking it or goats not breaking it, an impossible feat really, but if allah willing...

the building of the mudstove also hurt. i didnt sift the millet chauf (clearly completely my fault) well enough and now i have splinters and scratches all over my hands from working the clay with my hands.

my friend kim's mom had a baby so i went to its baptism. kim lives in an ethnically pulaar village (mine is wolof) so new traditions, new experiences? ive never been to a pulaar baptism.

turned out to be a ton of fun. the food was amazing, the music was great, the dancing was fun to watch, and the people were just nicer and smilier. if the stupid pulaar men in my area would stop harassing me, pulaars would be just awesome.

oh and i think i sprained my knee on the bike trip to kim's village. my 2 months of bike inactivity which included 1 month in america being idle and gluttonous wasnt very good on my body. it is dying.

in about 5 weeks, i will have been in senegal for a year... wow