april 25, 2006 - mangos

there is something very satisfying about picking a mango yourself and then eating it. today i found a good mango-picking-stick, a long thin piece of dry bamboo. perfect, light and strong with a split at one end that could be used to grab stems. searching out the most perfect, golden-orange specimens, i nudge gently at their stems. the ripest ones fall easily, each thump on the ground beside me a minor victory. sometimes they are less cooperative and require a nudge and a twist. some of the higher ones are beyond the reach even of my bamboo, and these inspire me to stretch and make little hops that are probably hilarious to the average guinean onlooker (or possibly any onlooker). a particularly loaded branch invites a vigorous shaking that results in a shower of fruit. the last mango is the zen mango. i nudge it gently with the bamboo stick in my right hand and as it falls, without really looking or trying, i catch it neatly with the other hand. a perfect sort of moment and time to go home.

april 20, 2006

it is a kind of lonely evening with a wild wind bowing the end to another market day. not the sad sort of lonely, just the kind that would be nicer with company. it would be nice to have someone to talk to, so i will write another letter. the longer i am at site without going anywhere the more letters i write. rains seem to be coming early this year; today is the fourth in a row.

In Search of God

inspired by a BBC Sunday morning program title:

"This is your roving reporter, Helen Mooney, for In Search of God. I'm talking to you today from Cleveland, Ohio, where God was recently spotted by one of our loyal listeners. According to the eyewitness report, last Tuesday at 3:00 in the afternoon, the King of Heaven was in Heeb's Grocery buying a watermelon. 'The Lord really seemed to know what he was doing, listening with his ear down close to it while he thumped the melon. He thumped purtnear all of 'em before he found the one he liked, and then he sort of nodded and headed on over to the checkout' says Ida Wilson. 'I would have followed him and asked about the Judgement Day and whatnot, but I was already running late for a hair appointment with Louise and she's not a very patient person.'
The store manager observed that the Holy Father not only knows his produce but also has a nose for a bargain. Watermelon was on special last week, 15 cents a pound."