last night on camp
Just checked my flight status for tomorrow - all appears happening as planned. Fred will take me to the airport (he was the one who picked me up and I like the symbolism of it - plus, I'd rather say goodbye to Dayton in private) and Mahmoud will pick me up the next day in Amman, Jordan.
Last night Fred and I had a VERY INTERESTING chat which led to such topics as FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). He's had sex partners who both were and weren't and he can't tell a difference. ("You acknowledged the clitoris, I hope!" was my original statement, leading him to explaining why sometimes that's not the case.) I didn't know so many were done in Liberia. It was one of those moments of cultural discontinuity - I forget there are substantive cultural differences until something shocking is said and then it's like, oh yeah, this is another world. A world where I feel really comfortable usually, but sometimes strange. And Fred is always candid, but especially when alone with me and especially late at night. I'm learning it's pretty damn easy to manipulate Liberian men late at night.
The marriage proposals are rolling in at an alarming rate. Yesterday I got a long letter from Ellis, the carpenter working on the school, declaring his eternal love for me and his desire for us to be wed with Jesus Christ. Clearly not the man for me. A very nice hard-working man, and I just wish he'd been told I wasn't available to save him embarrassment. Or save me embarrassment?
Then today Joseph came to visit, to say good-bye. He finally accepts that I won't be his second wife, but so now he still wants to control me and insists I marry Morris. Now, I am extremely fond of Morris - we are very good co-workers and friends, and he will be invaluable for my dissertation research and hopefully later work. And I know he's more than fond of me, but he knows where I stand. But it's all cool - we can joke around and all that, and it doesn't hurt our friendships. Dayton told me to be more careful sometimes, and he's right. And because he's a Wonderful Man, that was a suggestion to me because I was upset rather than any kind of command.
It's bloody hot here - miserably so, with humidity. I have no energy.
Oh, the farewell program for me was so much worse than I anticipated - I almost walked out the 700th time Jesus was mentioned. And idiot Emmanuel has absolutely no clue of the work I did here (which is mostly my fault, since I stopped speaking to him) and was just talking shit and I would have kicked his ass right in front of all those children, but we're a peace school.
And just one of the many reasons that Dayton is the da bomb is that he takes care of all that shit for me. He defends me and makes Emmanuel stop being a stupid shit. He takes on my fights when I'm tired of them, and he's strong and fierce like me but a little more diplomatic. Go Team ME. And I really like how we communicate. And I don't just mean that euphemistically. But we'll be doing plenty communicatin' tonight, so it's time to go find my sweet, hot Kru man.
Last night Fred and I had a VERY INTERESTING chat which led to such topics as FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). He's had sex partners who both were and weren't and he can't tell a difference. ("You acknowledged the clitoris, I hope!" was my original statement, leading him to explaining why sometimes that's not the case.) I didn't know so many were done in Liberia. It was one of those moments of cultural discontinuity - I forget there are substantive cultural differences until something shocking is said and then it's like, oh yeah, this is another world. A world where I feel really comfortable usually, but sometimes strange. And Fred is always candid, but especially when alone with me and especially late at night. I'm learning it's pretty damn easy to manipulate Liberian men late at night.
The marriage proposals are rolling in at an alarming rate. Yesterday I got a long letter from Ellis, the carpenter working on the school, declaring his eternal love for me and his desire for us to be wed with Jesus Christ. Clearly not the man for me. A very nice hard-working man, and I just wish he'd been told I wasn't available to save him embarrassment. Or save me embarrassment?
Then today Joseph came to visit, to say good-bye. He finally accepts that I won't be his second wife, but so now he still wants to control me and insists I marry Morris. Now, I am extremely fond of Morris - we are very good co-workers and friends, and he will be invaluable for my dissertation research and hopefully later work. And I know he's more than fond of me, but he knows where I stand. But it's all cool - we can joke around and all that, and it doesn't hurt our friendships. Dayton told me to be more careful sometimes, and he's right. And because he's a Wonderful Man, that was a suggestion to me because I was upset rather than any kind of command.
It's bloody hot here - miserably so, with humidity. I have no energy.
Oh, the farewell program for me was so much worse than I anticipated - I almost walked out the 700th time Jesus was mentioned. And idiot Emmanuel has absolutely no clue of the work I did here (which is mostly my fault, since I stopped speaking to him) and was just talking shit and I would have kicked his ass right in front of all those children, but we're a peace school.
And just one of the many reasons that Dayton is the da bomb is that he takes care of all that shit for me. He defends me and makes Emmanuel stop being a stupid shit. He takes on my fights when I'm tired of them, and he's strong and fierce like me but a little more diplomatic. Go Team ME. And I really like how we communicate. And I don't just mean that euphemistically. But we'll be doing plenty communicatin' tonight, so it's time to go find my sweet, hot Kru man.
posted by NOLA at 9:41 AM
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