Manimou plays freestyle dundun at the Seattle World Cup

Manimou Camara plays Folklife in Seattle with Thione Diop

Manimou Welcome Everyone to Dounia Djembe

Alseny Yansane teaches Guinean Dance

I realize that you all have been left hanging.
So after some vitamins and fruit and peanutbutter Rosaline has recovered from her 9 days of starvation in January. After that she completely moved to her dad's place and is there with him. Manimou finally got out of the house after over a week of confinement yesterday and sent me an email.
He said that things are very hard, and that people can only move around outside of their houses from 4 to 6 pm. If you do move around outside of the martial law curfew hours then you will be indescriminantly shot on sight.
Manimou wrote that his neighbor Madame Kourouma was shot by a stray bullet that came in through her corrugated tin roof while she was sleeping. Madame Kourouma is the medicine woman in our neighborhood, and the matriarch of her family.
Manimou says that the wound she recieved should not be serious, but this is not a normal time and the hospitals which are normally pitiful are basically useless now.
I hope that they will be able to get onto an Air Moroc plane soon but there is alot of red tape, and Morocco is more wary than usual because they are afraid that all these Guineans will try to immigrate illegally.
I am excited, Dayna is apparently in the state of Colorado and headed my way. We are going to celebrate the "debachery" of Fat Tuesday tomorrow by dancing in the CB parade with Ballet Fote Kan. (Ballet White Voice, I know, it is a terrible name! why?) But it should be fun; red beans and rice, corn succatash, corn bread, King cake...
on wednesday we take off for the NW stopping in SLC at my friend Britts place and then rockstarring to my parents place.
That is really about it.
I am trying to pack right now and am frightened by how much crap I have. How am I gonna get it all in the car, and Dayna too?
hmmmmmmmmmm. Maybe I will go walk the dog instead. Go up to town and close my bank account.
it'll get done.
j

If you asked me if I thought I would be doing what I am doing right now when I graduated college in 2003 then I have no idea what I thought. Traveling maybe.

And that prediction is true, I do travel, the world and the biways of my own psycohology, exploring love and worry.

I never thought I would be researching liver flukes, and a 2 inch parasitical worm that will eat your liver away and block up your bile valves with it's eggs. Can you even believe that exists in people? If you do an internet search it looks like something confined to sheep for the most part.

Well that is what Rosaline our then 4 year-old had last year, distended belly and jaundiced eyes.

Now, after the 3 week general strike in Guinee, she is sick again. This time because she was unable to eat for a week and is showing signs of starvation. She hurts all over and cries throughout the night. All I can do is try to long distance diagnose and help Manimou figure out what to do. I told him fruit, milk, vitamins, and peanut butter. I hope it works, I found a doctor who works in Malawi from washington University and he swears by vitamin and mineral fortified peanut butter.

I hope that this works.

so bor-e-d

Time goes by slow when I am not with Manimou and Rosaline. I swear it starts to run when I get around them! But hey, I will be driving away from cold, cold srested butte sooner than later. Febuary 20th or so and Dayna will be accompanying me! it rocks. I haven't seen that woman in over a year so and a long car ride to drive eachother crazy is probably just what we need.

I have been chatting it up with a bunch of friends from out Seattle way and it gets me more and more excited about our decision to move out there,

I hope that I have time to take some dance classes, besides Guinean dance classes. that is one of the best parts of actually moving into the city. Capoeira, and contact, and african dance! I would love to get better and actually look half-way graceful, and powerful.

i think it will also be nice be be close to the family again, especially with Manimou and Rosaline coming. No better way to get to know someone better than to see 'em with their parents.

Oh, for anyone who actually reads this, they will be at Sea-tac on 16 march 2007 at 11pm! Wow.

Well that is if we can figure out how to get his tickets to him. Because the the epic general strike that has been happening over the last three weeks, nothing is open. But Guinea will pull through it unscathed and hopefully better off. We'll see.

in the mean time I am just trying to pass the time in frozen snow-less Crested Butte, Colorado.

i have been going to a guinean dance class held by a couple of american-born Crested Butte residents. The classes are really fun and their success inspires me. Manimou can totally do this! Smart guy.

Here I will upload some of the pictures i took and messed with at work today. They are kind of funny huh? Do I look as bored as I actually am?

Manimou and Jessica have a Silly Conversation

Manimou and I discuss the finer points of eating ones sacrifice, my chicken, Chuck.

Le Fete de Noel; Cam, Milo, Aleesha et moi
Milo et moi avec out les cadeaux de Noel!
Aujourdhui je prepare avec Aleesha le poulet avec espice
Le riz
et bogomu moi!