Bamako, Mali. Saturday July 4^th, 1998.

As I suspected, the course was a flop. It's funny, but I come here to teach and it's so hard to reach the people here. I don't know if they understand because I ask them questions and they just stare at me. It's tough having 25 students. I think next time I'll keep my group small. There are a few who participated and wanted to learn more. At least I was about to reach them. But it's not an easy task!

I found Mouhammoud's phone number but I forget to call him. Oh well, no biggie. I have a meeting with Sebby and Phil tonight. We chat over ICQ. Isabelle was at Phil's and she was iniatiated to the art of chatting. Hehehe… I felt so Loved! Teehee! We chat until 4am my time. Good thing I have a day off tomorow! I miss them.. *pout*

Bamako, Mali. Sunday July 5, 1998.

Welp, I woke up late and had a headache the rest of the day. I also went swimming in the pool because it was too hot. That was amazing. The whole day was a haze, so I don't really remeber anything important enough to log in. Tomorrow's work day again…

Bamako, Mali. Monday July 6^th, 1998

Well, I told my boss yesterday that I will be late today. I come in late. I am not very productive and 2 of my students are not in. Another calls in sick. Actually, she didn't call, we just suspect so because she didn't come to work to whole day. Nothing special happens today. It's quite boring until I come home and chat with my two brothers. It was weird because we are the 3 true blood., meaning that we're full siblings whereas the others are half. So we have a bond that is so close, that no one can compete with. Yet sometimes we don't really realize it until we are far away. So how far apart can we be; one is in North America (Junior), one is in Asia (Jonathan) and the other is in Africa (me). I feel closer to my brothers now, because I am aware of my emotional need of them more when I'm deprived of it. It's weird. Anyways, our conversation is very emotional. We talk about alot of things, teasing eachother, call eachother names like "bugtwat" and "needledick" but it just wouldn't be the same if we didn't say those things. My brother junior finally did something cool lile go out until 7am the next day… teehee! Sometimes I think that it's better that I give him a break so that he doesn't something extra to worry about for awhile. I've been thinking of names for my brother jonathan's upcoming baby grrl. I wonder if he's gonna do the same filipino tradition of naming his kids with the same first letter like "jonathan, junior and jennifer"… hehehe… I wonder why parents do that? Are the afraid they will forget their names??

Bamako, Mali. Tuesday July 7^th, 1998.

Today is a holiday. I didn't even know that. In muslim tradition, it's the equivalent of Christmas. Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Today, we celebrate the birth of Mohammed.

I still have a headache. I'm gonna have to sleep early today.. heheh.. I clean up my room a bit. Even though I have maids to do that, I still do to keep myself busy. At lunch, Naj comes back from Guinea, totally surprizing us! We thought he would be back only Thursday. I'm very happy to see him!! Apparently things didn't go so well in Conakry. Raph and Naj talk about business and such. Sometimes I understand, sometimes I don't. I still have to get use to the accent here. It's not to bad to date, I'm adjusting pretty ok.

Naj gives me some Guinean moulah. Pretty cool. He's a pretty cool dude, too. Saturday he is going to Tunisia to see his wife and kids. It's their 10^th anniversary. We go for a swim and BOY does that feel great!! The water is actually cleaner than usual. I'm kinda shy exposing my…errr… body in public, but hey, I have no one to impress, right?? Afterwards, we talk some more about business. Raph seems worried about getting the contract in Conakry. I hope he'll find a solution. I have no doubt about that because he's very knowledgeble in these things. Sometimes, he reminds me of dad, always thinking of business and possibilities. In our Generation X, we just think of doing and not of creating. But if we don't create, we stagnate. I wonder what the world will be like in the future… kids killing kids would be practically normal? And would we accept that as a normality? That would scare me.

Afterwards, we go out for some Ice cream. The ice cream here taste a little like UHT milk, you know, the kinda milk you find in shelves. But I rather eat that than something that isn't pasteurized. We go back home.