philly lately

things have been going going

saturday i drove to lancaster for katy's wedding... it was a bit of a trek but the wedding was really great and katy seemed so happy... it was also nice to see the fam and extended fam and boogie a little bit. there were some quotes that may or may not live on forever in bangser history. "well i made a mistake" (some of you will get that...)

sunday morning after a quick breakfast ben and i jumped in the car to drive back to philly (he came to visit!). we spent sunday walkin all over the place - exploring around south street, grabbing some crepes on 6th and bainbridge, chilling in the park, and eventually getting some indian buffet with a bunch of friends (including my friend alex from ny who was also visiting). why is indian food so effing good? ben 'bolted' out this afternoon to go home (boo... but ill see him in a few days).

so this afternoon i was walking past this african grocery store and i decided to go in just to see what they had. and i talked to the dude for a minute and hes from cote d'ivoire and speaks Julakan which is a lot like Bambara so we were able to speak a bit in both languages which was cool. then when i walked out of the store there were three dudes eating a dish together (the fact that they were sharing one plate made me think theyre probably african too). i said 'hello' as i passed and kept walking, but then they called me over saying they wanted to ask me a question. i was kind of curious as to where these dudes were from so i stopped and talked to them. they asked where i was from and then i did the same and they said cote d'ivoire too. i didnt say anything about mali or anything and was about to walk away when they said "come eat with us" which is something you always have to do in west africa. instead of responding in english, i just said "A Barika!" which means 'no thanks, i'm satisfied thank's to god' (more or less) in colloquial bambara/julakan. The guys like, jumped out of their seats. 'I be bamanankan fo wa?' (you speak bambara?) "awo" (yep). then we had a whole conversation in Bambara/Julakan and it was basically the coolest move i've ever pulled in my life. they were not expecting that from me at all! mwahahaha.

i went to this thing tonight called 'books through bars' and it was really effin cool. its basically this program that sends book to prisoners upon request. they have a big collection of donated books (mostly used, but a few new ones) and prisoners from all over the midatlantic region, and california and florida, write to request books. so people go to volunteer for this program and what you do is you pick a letter from a prisoner and then try to find books that he/she would like. the program is meant to 1. promote self-education of prisoners and 2. educate the public about the problems in our criminal justice system (i.e. many of these places have no educational materials available!) it was pretty cool to read the letters from the prisoners. i fulfilled 2 requests in the time i was there, giving one guy 5 books and another one 4 (normally its just 2-4 but the first guy had so many interests i squeezed in an extra skinny one). of the letters i read while deciding the ones i was going to work on, it was cool to see that many of them were really interested in self-improvement, poetry, african american history, and languages. there are also tons of requests for dictionaries (malcolm x?). anyway, its too bad im just discovering this as i leave the city... they do it 6 times a month and i think its a really cool program and more people should get involved and donate books and stuff.

in case anyone was wondering, warthog is doing well. i discovered the other day that its really funny to say that word if you pronounce the "th" sound like "th" -- i think it gives it more character (though im not sure it will stick).

im excited to start the job in harlem just because im ready to be outside a lot again... but i which i could have some permanence in my life. im so nomadic these days!