sweat, internet

please, for my sanitys sake, dear readers, do me a favor: calculate what you earn in a day. no, dont tell me the sum; id surely turn green with underpaid-volunteer envy... or perhaps the local parasite thats been going around. instead, imagine walking into a cybercafe. sit down to a computer and try unsuccessfully to check your email for an hour. then, before leaving the cafe, hand that sum of money to the cashier. yes, the whole eight hours worth. ps, the cafe has neither air conditioner nor windows. oh and its pushing at least a hundred degrees. outside the concrete box you in which you are sitting.

do i sound bitter? thats the latter part of the oft-cited "the good, the bad, and the ugly." heres the first two:

i am a volunteer, officially affectated to atar, the northern most (proper) city in mauritania. to locate on an atlas, i recommend finding the continent of africa and looking under the capital "s" of SAHARA DESERT. yep, thats where i live. ish. /smile

when i learn to navigate the internet up here (a blazing 56k) i will catch up on emails and journal entries (hand written thus far). for now, please know that i am happy (good), healthy (good), and miss the following things (bad, but tolerable), in no particular order:

- beer
- cheese
- saying hello to people on the street without questioning cultural boundaries
- smiling at children
- petting cats without questioning disease transmutability
- sharing my innermost thoughts online with strangers (more to come, promise)
- baseball games, green couches
- reading o silent escort
- dancing
- (functioning) buzz clippers
- anyone who has written me a letter (gold stars and brownie points will indeed be awarded ~sept 2008)

signing out for now, but keep sending me positive vibes. im but 4000 mi away as the crow flies, and goodwill isnt diluted over such cosmically trivial distances.