ok, so i hope i'm not an instant addict (he's got a taste for the stuff) and not that i would consider myself to be on a roll, but i feel i should include a quick bit of explanation about a few things...
A. I am not a cannibal, nor condone the eating of your fellow man (though if that is your things and you want to do it in the privacy of your own home that's your business...) I am traveling with two lovely (well one lovely, one passable ;) individuals, Brittney Exline and Samuel Ribnick. They are both good friends of mine and if this venture ends up in scenario 2, hopefully partners in crime.
B. We are not JUST headed to Cameroon to get better tans and feast of the delicious plantain, we recieved $10,000 and 100 XO laptops from the non-profit One Laptop Per Child to impement a radical new education program somewhere in Africa. We are partnering with an NGO in the Southwestern province of Cameroon called the United Action for Children, where we will be giving the XOs and extending wireless internet to students 6-12 years of age at the Jamadianle School near Buea.
C. We are not planning on being cam"marooned" and each of us is off to more adventures after the summers end. Sam and I will be headed to Jordan, where will be studying abroab next semester at the Qasid Institute for Classic and Modern Standard Arabic in the heart of the capital Amman. Sam will be learing to pronounce the word "Qasid" (deep in the throat with a low glottal stop) while I improve work on acquiring Jordanian Dialect and touring the rest of the Middle East by foot or by crook (preferrably foot, its the most sole-ful way to travel ;) on the weekends. Brittney will be headed back to Philly to continue programming (her love affair with computer science being long and torrid) and explain to the rest of the Penn where the dynamic duo went of course.
The last thing I would like to clarify is the title of this blog. Its from a poem by the japanese poet Issa. it goes: The man pulling radishes/pointed my way/with a radish. short and sweet you might think? perhaps but these 3 lines suffer from a serious Napolean syndrome at least in my view, and I could spend some time explicating how this poem is really a very profound commmentary on the role each of has to play in the world, the issue of perspective, and most importantly dealing with everything traveling the world can entail, but i'll leave the details for another time and let you draw your own interpretations for now. Cheerio! (and milk ;)
Sunday, May 31, 2009
i guess i should start posting now so here's #1: Espisode One: The Phantom Visa
Hi. for those of you who know me, i guess i don't need to introduce myself, for those of you who don't, where did you come from and why are you reading my blog? jk i am flattered that you (theoretical) people are taking your time to check in on what i'm up to and i will try to make it passably interesting, without compromising the highest standards of journalistic integrity of course...
i guess since we're in those eerie predeparture hours where i and my fellow traveling companions are carefully eyeing each other deciding who will be the most likely to provide a good meal should we crash on some island off the coast of Africa and the need to sacrifice a member of the party for food become apparent, i dont really have a lot of actual experiences to deliver. though i can up the ante by dropping a few nervous details, such as the fact that we have yet to be issued our visas from the Cameroonian Embassy here in DC. "the mean lady" may have promised Sam they'd have them by last Friday, and despite our repeated attempts to offer bribes (supposedly its one of the most corrupt countries in the world, perhaps the punishement for those few straight edges is to send them overseas...) we have yet to get them in hand, which has caused us to change our flight from London to Cameroon already by a day, but we are holding out to the very end like a trio of texas hold'em pros on our London flights cuz to switch them would be totes expense, to say the least. Now with all the cards on the table, the moment of truth comes tomorrow morning when we see the flop, insha-allah (god willing) we'll be cleared for take-off.
If not, i for one am considering departing sans-visa and starting a life of international crime, complete with purloined artwork and tricked out mini coopers.
If our tears and the burlesque show we plan to throw tomorrow at the embassy pay off, i'll hail next from either London or Cameroon. If not i'll probably never post again as it doesn't pay to have an identity in Scenario #2. just have to wait and see...
i guess since we're in those eerie predeparture hours where i and my fellow traveling companions are carefully eyeing each other deciding who will be the most likely to provide a good meal should we crash on some island off the coast of Africa and the need to sacrifice a member of the party for food become apparent, i dont really have a lot of actual experiences to deliver. though i can up the ante by dropping a few nervous details, such as the fact that we have yet to be issued our visas from the Cameroonian Embassy here in DC. "the mean lady" may have promised Sam they'd have them by last Friday, and despite our repeated attempts to offer bribes (supposedly its one of the most corrupt countries in the world, perhaps the punishement for those few straight edges is to send them overseas...) we have yet to get them in hand, which has caused us to change our flight from London to Cameroon already by a day, but we are holding out to the very end like a trio of texas hold'em pros on our London flights cuz to switch them would be totes expense, to say the least. Now with all the cards on the table, the moment of truth comes tomorrow morning when we see the flop, insha-allah (god willing) we'll be cleared for take-off.
If not, i for one am considering departing sans-visa and starting a life of international crime, complete with purloined artwork and tricked out mini coopers.
If our tears and the burlesque show we plan to throw tomorrow at the embassy pay off, i'll hail next from either London or Cameroon. If not i'll probably never post again as it doesn't pay to have an identity in Scenario #2. just have to wait and see...
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