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493> ∫um-ollie axen dicebats chantsing «funfun kẹtẹkẹtẹ» not in cognito la isola of Isiolo

vu where we riding from

17 Aug 2016> Isiolo, Kenya> went to our ol' stomping ground (Gigiri) last nite fo drinks + dinner .. super-hiyh security everywhere u go now .. every hotel ± mall u go thru metal detectors + even once inside they wand u again to go into a shop .... this morn we drove 4-5 hours thru Nairobi traffic + north by northeast past Mt Kenya + a variety of topologies cross the equator to dusty Isiolo .. far from an i-land as italiano mite imply .. mo like a dusty dipression ..

roadsides ∫umwhere b-tween Nairobi + Isiola ..

 

 

 

 

 

mosque in Isiolo

18 Aug | Isiolo> last nite howling winds shook th windows + bats chirp'd sonar roosting in our eaves (too windy for them to fly?) + sooty dust seep'd in thru every crevasse but we slept surprisingly well cunsidering .. woken by pre-dawn call to prayr .... cassava + beans + nescafe for brekfast then wint for a run on dusty desolit roads past piles of burning rubbish + burnt-out trash + weatherd drunks drinking moonshine out of yellow plastic cooking-oil containers or sniffing gas out of tuna-cans every1 double-taking @ us of corse .. not every day u see a mzungu running, dem aks habari? to wich we rispond sawa sawa, or pole pole wich they git a kick out of specially th kids running next to us but tell u what they aint so fast here, cant keep up for too long not like Ethiopia where even in shcool uniform + lugging books th kids keep stride next to u wile having a conversation .. then again, we not near Eldoret where ∀ll th Kenyan runners hail from .. we on th east-side, more Somali-types .. bit sketchy + volatile .. tribal feuding over grazing lands .. specially in times of drought like now .. Turkana fighting Borana or Somalis ± rustling eachudders cows .... kept a'running past th airstrip thru makeshift roadblocks w/ yung stick-wielding guys extorting moola outta drivers to pass thru their hood looking @ us like waht do we do w/ this wazimu mzungu we just wave + dont give them time to say nada we got nada on us innyway go ahead .. watch yo feet uneven ground + rocks + broken boddles .. vast dusty wind-scrubb'd fields no plants in site sides acacia + diesel trucks bumping along spewing xhaust + kicking up dust .. eyes + throat burning now after .. not th most pleasant running environment yo every1 coming outta their shacks to gawk @ th longhair'd mzungu w/ tattoos if they brave enuff they say hello how r u .. as always feel a bit strange running jus for exorcize when ∫um of these folk struggle jus to survive .. wave hodi to 1 shy kid w/ his hands b'hind him + he waves back but he dont have no rite hand to wave with, just a stub (cot stealing?) .. but every1 still smiles + yells mzungu! habari? how r u what s yor nem? murging w/ herds of goats + cows past donkeys humping hogwah w/ heds down + eventually on th outskirts herds of camels .. thinking @ 1° we'd stick to side roads to not attract too much attn to ourselves but sure by now every1 in town knows we here hope there aint no al shabab want to kidnap us fo ransom ± worst ..

full moon over Isiolo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

> start'd reading Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett .. a book we pick'd up in Nairobi cuz she soundid good by th blurbs (+ slim pickings udderwise) but they shrinkwrap new books in plastic in Kenya so we dint git a chants to peak nun inside so not til we crack'd her spine did we ℝeeleyes this books gotta a dumb-ass premise—a guy wakes up 1 day (in Lagos) + finds himself white, xcept his ass wich remains black—a spin on Kafka's Metamorphosis .. or th inverse of Black like Me (tho that wurnt no work of fiction but a sociologickle study) .. + just so happens that day he's got a job interview + go figger! of corse he gits the job + a promotion even w/ car + driver cuz he = white now .. + every1 nice to him etc.. yah, totelly cuntrived + cliché .. but he soon finds his whiteness aint all that living in Africa .. makes you stick out like a sunburnt + mosquito-stung thumb .. «People pointing at him staring all the time, shouting "oyibo" at every corner» [where presumably oyibo means mzungu in yoruba or whateva dem parlay in Nigeria] .. ∫umpin we kin relate to as we probly th sol oyibo in this here town .. intresting pidgin dial-a-log in Blackass tho unfortunetly he dont inklewd enuff .. + then ~75 pgs in he (directly now as Igoni, hoo th not-black jackass meets self-referentially in th story) digresses into a ranting commentary about Twitter (complete w/ his handle so u of corse look him up + follow him) + Facebook wich turn'd us off even further may'b in 10 yrs we mite look back + find ∫umpin intresting about this current soshull media fenomena but not now, too soon yo .. to put such refrences in yo book dates her as so 2010 ..

Blackass over Isiolo

> this white minority fish-out-water sindrome we kin relate to tho not just cuz of our time spent here in Kenya but also coming of age in Mexico (th backdrop to A Raft Manifest) where th Mexikin kids made all sorts of assumptions about us + pick'd fites all th time perhaps what makes us now value anonymity .. walking round in cognito w/o attracting attn to yo self .. priceless ..

our current dream raft

 

moonset over Isiolo

 

rooftops

 

cliché

 

 

Aug 19> bats chattering under our eaves (¿or th gap in our corrugated tin cealing?) + bldg-shaking wind all nite follow'd by brainwashing call 2 prayr still dark now sparrows + occassional motorbike ± a donkey baying hee-haw made us ℝeeleyes (again, ∀ll this in lite of A Raft Manifest) that this hole wile we harbore code insite us that lays dormant as a doormat til xpress'd con SOÑAR using dicebats that speak for us ∀ll along s-ay + not til now did we know why (2 th x-tent we registerd www.dicebat.com 5 yrs ago in Dublin cuz we liked how she made appearances in th Book of Kells) + dicebat we hereby adbreviate gong 4word as db .. to say every line of dial-a-log gits log'd in our database .. + inny landgauge leftova gits d-based when cashed .. u see ∀ll these women here in burkas looking ∀ll th same (talking about in cognito) + think they slaves to mohammed + their men til u stop + talk to 1 + find a burka just a shell that dont affect their mind nun, enables them to go on unharrassed day to day this 1 we met super smart + hip tho «naughty» she sed cuz not married + hadnt yet pilgrammaged to Mecca (tho had an iPhone ap pointing th way) .. the soul way to change = from th inside, not telling them wah todo or def not using forze gonna change their ways (like stopping FGM) said she dint care waht ppl beleaved long as they had common decency + respect for 1 anudder wich perty much ∫ums up how we feel .... went to th livestock market this morn to check out goats .. talked to some guy selling his that also had 70 camels back @ home .. not too shabby ..

 

 

livestock market in Isiolo

 

goat rodeo

 

inspecting th goods

+ now word on th street that Al Shabab's in town recuiting so we shoont go outside our hotel etc .. now they tell us! .. gonna post this now, shitty Inurnet willing .. if u dont hear from us again u know wahappend .. ether that or we got eaten by lions wich tops our list of ways to go ..

 492 <( )> 494 > lo + b-hold we d'rive game on safari in Shaba reserve


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