October 24, 2005

• i have had a remarkable morning despite the fact that i have had an extremely small amount of sleep latley...

  
  

  i would like to share with you some songs friends have ...eh hem... altered, they are not about to win any awards or anything, but they made me laugh... which is worth recognition if nothing else: 

  
  

   

  
  

  to the tune of "oh christmas tree"

  
  

       Oh Ramadan, Oh Ramadan,

  
  

       oh how you make me lazy

  
  

       Oh Ramadan, Oh Ramadan,

  
  

       oh how you make me crazy

  
  

   

  
  

  to the tune of that old song "wouldn't it be nice..." (Erica started singing it once we discovered a big african spider in our bathroom)

  
  

       wouldn't it be nice if he would eat them,

  
  

       then we wouldn't have to kill them all

  
  

       there would be no more mosquitos,

  
  

       and they wouldn't be smeared on the walls

  
  

       wouldn't it be nice....

  
  

   

  
  

  You will be happy to hear that Tunis has had a remarkable impact on my domesticity.  ...but, clearly, not on my English skills.  a very astute observation from one who really knows: "btw, your english is slipping" ...its funny cause its true... oh i hope that remedies itself quickly.  it has made me not want to post on here... but back to being domestic: since i've been here i have been washing my laundry by hand (its a good thing those women taught me how in S Africa that summer), and -surprisingly enough- cooking.  I'm no Chef, but i can make you some killer Briq... and Tunisian tea like you've never had.  It is actually a small joy for me, and healing somewhere that makes me smile, to cook.  Most of you know that my skills in the kitchen have been... uh... less than impressive... but i've discovered that i really enjoy it.  ...i think it's the easiest artistic expression i have here.  ...of course, it is not easy to cook in Tunis.  The ordeal of dinner-and Ifdar at that- takes 3-4 hours.  no i am not kidding.  patience is a virtue and an ally here.  It has certainly been an inlightening experience.  ...Borgiba really was wise in his decision to send half the population to school/work by adding electricity and roads. 

  
  

  how easily we forget that in most of the world thought is a luxury.  Not the act, but the high art, for sure.  Philosophizing, as Perlman calls it, is just not done when your days are consumed with fetching water, cooking, cleaning, child-raising, and being otherwise overwhelmed with duty.  Of course, it is part of the human mind to question and analyze... but I mean in the greek sense of sitting around and throwing out theories and ideas that have no immediate bearing on one's day-to-day life.  If you think about philosophers in that sense, they are the wealthy, the male, ...the west.  ...Oh how much we spend our time on things that do not matter... and oh how much it matters to spend ourselves.  some things are so easy to let go of... and others... others are not.

  
  

  people matter.

  
  

  if i learn nothing else in life, let me know and live out with every breath that people matter.

  
  

   

  
  

  you know how when we go out and everyone plans to pay for themselves we call it "going Dutch"?  Here they call it "Anglais"... and i am convinced that sometimes you have to be outside of something to see it accurately.  Surely, all sides are neccessary to actually understand something... but i think that this part of the world sees ours as it is now far more accurrately than we do.  We are still stuck in our own pasts, victories and defeats, traditions and scandals... to see just how much we evolve and change daily. 

  
  

  the world is small

  
  

  i hate the media.  i think judgement day will be hard on many of its members for making so many events unneccesarily [whatever].

  
  

  i was invited to a ball.  ha- yes really.  its some fancy to-do for the marines... which gives me little inspiration for attending.  but it is right after Eid so if i am not in Hammamet i may actually go.  we make life fun, right?

  
  

   

  
  

  i am so profoundly thankful for friendships

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  there are things to say and things to tell you. 

  
  

   

  
  

  the heart is a deep and mysterious thing... i shall never understand my own, to be sure.  but shoia shoia some things are becomming clearer.

  
  

   

  • 7:15 am
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