#this took me almost 24 hours to format!

[awellreadmannequin]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Homestuck Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam Characters: Rose Lalonde, Roxy Lalonde, Kanaya Maryam, Calliope (Homestuck) Additional Tags: Angst, Mental Health Issues, References to Addiction, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, continental philosophy, Rose Lalonde hates herself Summary:

How is a person supposed to go on? When the world you have always know crumbles away around you, how are you supposed to orient yourself again? You found an answer to that question once. At the bottom of a bottle of tasteless liquor. Since then, you’ve been forced to rely on inertia to keep going. But here, in this new world you helped create, inertia has faltered. Nothing happens anymore. All the people you depended on are either missing in action or busy. You know, logically, that what you need is to build a new support network. To strengthen the relationships you have until they can support you when you stumble. But how are you supposed to do that? All of your friends are just as traumatized as you. None of you have any real life experience beyond the game. The weight of not just a lifetime but an eternity without the basic social knowledge necessary to build and maintain stable and caring relationships looms over you. Everything feels so hollow now. What was the point of winning — of creating a new world — if you don’t even have the requisite mental and emotional configuration to enjoy it? How are you supposed to go on, Rose?

[eekshade]

Napkins

Bucky Barnes x m!reader

Word Count: 1367

Warnings/Info: slightly sexual comments but only if you squint, talkative reader, reader works at a diner, 3rd person, I forgot that cooks exist so just pretend they’re severely understaffed lol, also this is my first fic so let me know if there is something I could do better next time/if the formatting doesn’t look good :)

Part Two

Bucky woke in a panic, it took him a few moments (more than he’d care to admit) to register that it was just a dream or rather memory; which hurt him more. He tried to shake off the feeling of dread that had decided to settle into his stomach, he looked at his phone which read 4:32. Bucky knew that going back to sleep was out of the question as long as he felt this looming pain, anytime this happened he’d always just try and focus on something else, focus on anything else, and with nothing to do in his apartment he decided to try and walk it off.

The way Bucky was moving could only be described as erratic, as he quickly tied his shoes and grabbed his jacket, which had his gloves stashed in the pocket. He didn’t have a plan on where he was going, he just wanted to feel okay.

Bucky had been walking for around 30 minutes when he saw a 24 hour diner that was predictably near vacant. Out of instinct when Bucky entered he counted how many people were in the diner’s main area, there were two police officers who both carried to-go coffee, giving Bucky a slight nod as they left, seemingly to go start their shift. There was also a man sleeping in a booth, a half eaten stack of pancakes on the table in front of him, but no worker could be seen. He took a seat at the counter, feeling rather awkward as he waited.

Around 20 seconds passed and Bucky had slightly dozed off when he heard a (clearly fake) chipper voice exclaim, “Oh! I’m sorry to keep you waiting, I just don’t really see many people here this early - other than Glenn of course.” The man laughed as he gestured toward the sleeping man with his head. Bucky looked at the worker; a surprisingly pretty man, this caused Bucky to have to take a barely noticeable second to stare, the worker held up a mug and asked, “Coffee?”.

“Yes, please.” Bucky muttered a thank you as the worker; y/n according to his name tag, poured him a cup of burning hot coffee.

“So, what’s your deal?” Y/n asked with a very bright customer service smile.

“What do you mean?” Bucky almost sounded scared; almost.

“I mean,” y/n briefly paused to pull a large package of napkins, “I haven’t seen you before, and most people who are up this early are either tourists or in uniforms. You don’t look like either.” He said as he started to restock the napkin dispensers on the counter.

“Oh, yeah, I guess I just couldn’t sleep.” Bucky didn’t mean to and he immediately regretted it but he sounded a bit annoyed at the other man’s question, so to try and level it out smiled warmly at y/n.

It doesn’t work, much to Bucky’s dismay, because y/n is looking down at the napkins, “Yeah that must suck, I’m sorry.” y/n responds in a tone that signifies that the conversation was over, while still somehow keeping that overly polite smile.

Bucky feels like he should say something to show that he wants to keep talking, but he doesn’t know what to say; which is mainly due to the fact he found the man to be quite angelic, even in that old and stained diner uniform. So, in this moment of internal panic he unintentionally does what he does best, he stares at y/n. This lasts for around 30 seconds, around half way through he forgot what he was originally doing and instead he opted to just admire the worker’s features.

“Um, are you okay…?” Y/n asked Bucky, with a rather concerned look which made Bucky’s heart flutter.

“Ah, I’m sorry - I just,” Bucky took a quick breath in an attempt to regain his confidence (and dignity), “What about you? What’s your deal?” Bucky said as he gave y/n his best, hopefully, attractive smirk.

It seemed to work because y/n turned the rest of his body to look at Bucky, with a slight tilt of his head he laughed slightly as he sort of awkwardly responded, “Y’know, just working.” Y/n not used to customers asking about him had to take a moment to think of a better answer before he smiled at Bucky; this time it was a real heartfelt smile, which made Bucky want to kiss him right then and there, but alas, he still had a bit of common sense so he didn’t. Y/n and Bucky fell into a conversation about y/n’s life, Bucky hung onto every word.

Y/n talked for about 30 minutes, Bucky really only adding comments to keep him talking, y/n hadn’t realized how much he was talking until the bell that sat on top of the door rang; taking him out of his thoughts.

“Oh god, I’m sorry, I really talked your ear off didn’t I?” Y/n laughed looking ever so bashful, Bucky couldn’t help but linger on how attractive y/n looked while embarrassed but he stopped before it could go anywhere.

“No you’re fine, I actually prefer when someone else leads the conversation - I’m more of a listener.” Bucky reassured him, y/n smiled and walked off to tend to the new customer.

While he did that Bucky looked at the time, and to his shock a little more than an hour had passed. After realizing the time Bucky was hit with an overwhelming amount of tiredness, and knowing it's a 30 minute walk back, as much as he didn’t want to, he knew it was time to go. Y/n walked back towards him, with a slight smile tugging at his mouth.

“Hey, I kind of need to get going, but thank you for the company…it was really nice.” Bucky said slowly as he pulled a 20 out of his wallet, and handed it to y/n.

“Oh! Yeah totally, and no need to thank me,” he started to count Bucky’s change, ”I liked talking to you too - it was nice to have someone else in here.”

“Who’s awake I mean.” He quickly added with a laugh as he went to hand Bucky his change.

“You keep it, think of it as a real thank you.” Bucky said while putting his hand slightly up to gesture that he didn’t want it.

“I just said you don't have to thank me silly.” Y/n’s voice seemed to raise a pitch with that.

“I know but I want to.” Bucky tilted his head with a smile and a slight blush warming his cheeks.

Y/n playfully rolled his eyes as he put the money in his pocket. Bucky was collected and his body was slightly tense as he hovered over his seat showing he was about to leave, but he didn’t move.

“Do you need something else?” Y/n asked slightly confused

With a boost of confidence that seemed to have come from nowhere, Bucky’s body relaxed as he sat back down and in a hushed tone he replied, “Yeah, your number.”

Bucky had this knowing smile that danced across his face after seeing the way y/n had gotten visibly flustered; it made him want to giggle like a schoolgirl knowing it was him to have done that.

“Of course - how could I forget something so important.” Y/n responded as he hurriedly grabbed a napkin from a newly restocked dispenser, quickly scribbling down his name and number. “Come back soon.” He added while sliding the napkin towards Bucky.

“I will.” Bucky said as he stood, he was trying an embarrassing amount to keep his composure but he could feel y/n watching him leave and it made him want to turn around and sit back down; but he knew he couldn’t, so he just kept moving forward.

As Bucky got outside and out of view of the diner’s window he so very excitedly looked at the napkin while sporting the biggest smile, with a new found joy he felt as though he could skip home. Completely forgetting what caused him to leave the house this morning.

| MARVEL MASTERLIST |

[lilacsareinbloomagain]

May i request a yandere linked universe ( Warriors or Four or Hyrule, it honestly doesn't matter which one or if you'll write one, two or all of them )

Can they also act all flustered ( Maybe have heart eyes ) from the reader who is just doing nothing but exist.

First of all thank you for requesting :]

Notes: Ngl I wasn't expecting people to actually request but I'm trying my best to do all of them I swear

General note, when gender is not specified in the request I'll make the reader's gender also not be specified.

I'm not sure if you wanted it to be individual, but it is the way it is.

Also reader is from our world just because.

This is kind of in headcannon format but also not really

TWs: Yanderism but not a lot of it, more like obsession.

LU! Warriors, Four and Hyrule x Reader

Them being yandere dorks in love, that's it.

People say spending a lot of time with someone will eventually bring you close.

Hyrule is a big kingdom, traveling through it by foot or even on horse still took a long time

When you were playing the games you sure didn't expect the days to be that long, you weren't sure if it was just because they were extremely tiring or if the hours just passed slower here.

Either way, 24 hours really felt like 42 some days.

Let me explain how you came to spend time together.

Warriors was the one supposed to be taking care of you, since you weren't a fighter in any way, you didn't go to fight alongside everyone so the Links agreed that one of them should stay back with you in case a monster wandered too close.

Also because you were you. You loved fantasy and Zelda games which made your brain stupid enough to make you want to try to look at everything you could while you were here. Thing is, almost everything here is dangerous so you couldn't be left alone for 5 minutes.

So you spent a lot of time together, chatting about all things. Sometimes it was things from your world which seemed boring to you and interesting to him, as interesting as a whole new world can be to someone, sounds familiar?

Of course you didn't just talk about that, you also were very interested in him, asking all types of questions, which ranged from stupid, random ones like "What's your favorite animal?" to deeper ones like "What was the scariest moment in your life". All the while not pushing him to answer, which made your conversations flow by smoothly, making him slowly gain trust in you.

That genuine interest in him as a person and not just a hero of Hyrule was probably what made him subconsciously fall for you.

Let's be fair, the Links probably don't have enough healthy attention. So time of quality seems like the language of love they would crave more.

Even if they have "attention", it's more like attention for their title, not actual friendly chatting normal people have. Either way is not like they had a way to bring people they cared about with them to spend time together while they were saving Hyrule.

But they had to bring you with them, and it may have been your previous interest in the characters or your personality but you were interested in them and not in the heroes of Hyrule.

So that's why they fell for you.

Out of all of them you also spent a lot of time with Hyrule. You couldn't fight but you knew first aid since middle school when you somehow befriended the nurse.

So of course, even though you didn't have magic whatsoever, you certainly had the basic knowledge of medicine and the desire to learn more so that you could help more.

Which made you spend a lot of time with Hyrule. He tried to teach you how to make potions to the best of his ability, or at least, what didn't require magic.

With some time he got used to you being there, and you started to learn more which left more time for conversations instead of awkward silence while you guys handled ingredients and stuff.

So you chatted.

It took less time for him to befriend you than Warriors. Hyrule liked your way of being and he noticed how Warriors seemed to be always watching you, the suspicious gaze dissipated as days passed and was replaced with a fond gaze, which seemed to only soften more as more days passed.

He wasn't one to call him out on it.

Well it was even harder to do so when he fell for you too.

Now you almost always had two pairs of eyes fondly following you around no matter what you were doing.

That's where Four enters.

You didn't know shit about blacksmithing

But you thought it was cool, not only forging ores was cool but also how he was able to just make those cool battles axes and swords and stuff.

You even asked him once if he had even made a diamond sword.

That's how you started to talk.

Mostly it was about stupid things like the minecraft tools and ores you told him about, sometimes he told you he was indeed able to recreate those, most of the time he just sent you a look like you were crazy.

Eventually, you ditched the minecraft talk. However he was still funny so you started talking with him about the same things you talked with the others.

You thought that even if all the Links around you had the same title and were all supposed to be the same person they still went through different things which build their personalities differently.

Basically, they were completely different people to you.

This point was reinforced when you started talking more with each of them.

They were very different, the thing they had in common despite their title and love for you was that they were all awesome people. Not able to think two times before risking their lives to save someone else.

You admired them.

They also admired you when you weren't looking.

Hyrule wasn't one to point fingers to Warriors insistent stare at you, even more so because he was just as down bad.

Four certainly was.

The blackmailing didn't go as he planned but it also didn't go entirely bad.

They had an agreement.

All three of them were in love with you past the limits of how much they should. And all of them just couldn't seem to leave you be.

So after days and days of having the feeling of being watched at all times you got used to it. Even more since when you spoke about it with the Links you were closest to (aka, the ones who were staring at you nonstop) they told you it wasn't anything and to just brush it off.

Can you blame them? How could they just not admire someone like you?

Sure, what you were doing didn't seem awesome or anything, quite normal things any person does.

But it wasn't any person doing it

It was you.

How come they never noticed how attractive those things were when you done it?

They certainly did now.

If looked close enough, one could almost see faint hearts in their eyes when they were looking at you.

Not very healthy, but who cares? You deserve all the love they could give you and more.

[yuta-nakamots]

Pandora’s Box - N.Yuta (Teaser)

Pairing(s) - Soccer!Yuta x Female Reader

Genre(s) - Fluff, University!AU (more will be included in the full fic)

Warning(s) - None (I don’t think any are planned for the full fic but I will be sure to note any that end up being included)

Summary - Yuta was one of the best offensive players on your university’s soccer team yet his defense was just as strong. Namely, his emotional defense. It became a personal goal of yours to break away into his heart and score points in your favor.

Word Count For Teaser - 1.2k

Estimated Word Count - 6k

Estimated Release Date - July 2022

Author’s Note - This fic is based on one of the requests I got in my first event when I reached 1k where Yuta is a moody soccer boy that only shows himself to the reader who is also a soccer player. Not gonna lie, I’m really just projecting myself through this fic lol but people always say write what you want to read

Taglist - ​(send me an ask or message if you would like to be added. or fill out this form if you’d like to join this general taglist!)

Written for the Quarter Life Shenanigans Collab hosted by @ncteaxhoe​. 

Prompts: “I have a term paper due tomorrow but the cafe you work at after college is the only 24 hour cafe with internet,” and “I want to take a shower so you should probably join me, to save water you know.”

After the little incident on the field, you start to notice Yuta like an Easter egg, hidden in plain sight. On Monday, when you entered the classroom for your 9AM business ethics class, he was sitting on the other side of the room with his phone out. The seats had always been arranged in a circular formation to allow for discussion and as you took your seat, Yuta was almost directly in front of you. There was no way he had always sat there. You had this class three times a week and had six class meetings already yet you don’t recall ever seeing his face.

Yuta momentarily glanced up at you taking your seat, the two of you making brief eye contact for a second, though he looked away, turning his attention back to whatever was on his phone. You were still perplexed by his appearance in this class. Perhaps someone took his seat and he had moved to this one. Sometimes that happened in your other classes and you begrudgingly took up a different place in the room. Yeah, that’s probably what happened to him.

Most students streamed in a filled up the remaining spots in the circle while the professor started his lecture. Today’s focus was on profit margin and the professor started monotonously introducing the topic of buying low and selling high. It was common sense, really.

You found yourself falling disinterested in the lecture and allowed your eyes to wander throughout the room. When your gaze fell upon Yuta, it was startling to be met with his that was already on you. Now it was your turn to avert your eyes from his piercing stare. This type of interaction happened a few more times throughout the hour you were forced to listen to examples of net profit calculations.

It was quite inconvenient that Yuta chose the seat that he did since whenever you relaxed and forgot about his dark and foreboding presence, he came into view again. When the lecture drew to a close, you breathed a sigh of relief as he swiftly left the room. The stifling feeling that had gripped you throughout the class finally began to fade and you made a mental note to never again sit across from Yuta.

Later in the week on Friday, you were halfway through your shift at a small cafe, just a block away from campus. Due to its close proximity, it was frequented by your fellow university students so you shouldn’t have been surprised when a certain person entered the shop. Already preoccupied making another order, you didn’t pay him much attention but your hands became shaky as you felt the unsettling sensation of someone watching you.

“One medium green tea frappe with a caramel drizzle,” you heard him order while finishing up the drink you were working on. It may or may not have been on purpose that you took a while unscrewing the lid of the blender and pouring the contents out into a cup. But regardless, Yuta’s order went to another barista and you were happy to have avoided the awkwardness of calling his name and handing him the drink.

After your coworker had finished making his order, you subtly watched him take a table near the back of the shop. That particular spot was coveted by many since it only seated two people and had access to the outlet in the wall next to it. As he pulled out a laptop and charger from his backpack, you wondered just how long he would be staying since it was already nearing 6PM.

Yuta left from the forefront of your mind as the hours dragged on and you got lost in the repetition of completing orders and cleaning the equipment. The two other baristas working were entertaining enough with the rumor they heard about one of their professors doing drag at a local gay bar.

Before you knew it, the end of your shift was approaching and the employees taking the graveyard shift arrived. You double-checked that you had clocked out properly before taking off the cafe apron and throwing it in the laundry bag. Upon exiting the bar from the side door, you were surprised to see Yuta still at his table nestled in the corner.

He looked the same as when he first sat down all those hours ago, except he now wore glasses and had a collection of empty cups next to his laptop. He came in around 6PM and was still working at 10PM. You wondered what Yuta could possibly be doing that he kept himself holed up in the cafe for so long.

As you held the door open for your coworkers leaving behind you, Yuta looked up from his computer, his interest piqued by the motion behind his screen. Your eyes caught his, just as they did during class, though this time you could see exhaustion painted ever so clearly in his expression.

“It’s already ten o’clock,” you called out to him, walking over to his table, “what are you doing here this late?”

Yuta let out a heavy sigh which you could only assume was laced with his stress and lack of energy. “I have a term paper due tomorrow but this cafe is the only 24-hour cafe with internet near campus. So I’m stuck here, pretty much.”

“You don’t have wi-fi at your dorm?” you inquired, the thought of being a college student without internet access in their accommodations utterly horrified you.

“Apartment,” he corrected. “I do have an okay connection there, but my roommates slow it down a lot because of all the stuff they do.”

You couldn’t really imagine what a group of guys had to do in order to slow down their connection so much that Yuta felt he had to go elsewhere. Especially to work on a school assignment on a weeknight. That seemed inconsiderate of his roommates but you knew you weren’t in any place to voice these thoughts to Yuta. “How much longer are you planning to stay?”

“Maybe just another hour or so, I’m almost done,” he shared. “Why? Do you need me to leave or something?”

“No, I was just curious,” you blurt quickly, not wanting to provoke his thorny personality when he was already worn out. “I guess I’ll see you in class tomorrow?”

Yuta looked down at his laptop and sunk into the seat, “yeah, probably. If I actually wake up and get there in time.”

“I can take notes for you if you end up not making it,” you offer.

He perked up at your words. “That would be nice. Here,” Yuta picked up his phone from the table and held it out toward you, “send yourself a message from my phone so you have my number.”

You typed in your digits and sent a smiley face before handing the phone back to him. “Good luck on your paper,” you encouraged, “and hopefully see you tomorrow!”

“Thanks,” Yuta answered curtly while returning his focus to his assignment.

On your walk back to your dorm, your thoughts kept drifting to Yuta. It was clear that you haven’t broken through his shell but you had his number now. Surely that was progress, right? Why were you even trying to make progress in the first place? He’s only a classmate and not even a very sociable one. So why were you still so drawn to him?

[diaryoflightandshadow]

Sommer

Shoot Date: October 24, 2022

I had been wanting to shoot with Sommer for awhile, and when I reached out to her it turned out that she'd been wanting to shoot with me as well. Because we admired each others work, I felt we knew what to expect from one another. It made the collaboration easy...except for the weather.

Difficulty With On-Location Shooting

We arrived at Mt. Lemmon, AZ at around 7:30am. It was very cold. I had anticipated the cold, so I brought extra jackets as well as a blanket that Sommer could use between shots...but I felt it wasn't enough. The temperature was around 35°F degrees. But we carried on.

As a photographer, I tend to make shoots very difficult for myself. I rarely use assistants, and I bring heavy equipment. For this shoot my setup included a 4x5 press camera, a Mamiya RZ67 (people that have shot with these know how heavy they are), an AD400 Godox light with modifiers, a C-stand, and two 15lb sandbags. My Pelican Case weighed about 80lbs. The location was also about a 1/4 mile from where we parked. So I dragged an 80lb Pelican Case while also wearing a backpack through 1/4 mile of rough terrain. Luckily Sommer was there to carry the C-Stand for me, as well as the dress I'd made for the shoot.

Other than dealing with the wind (this is why I bring sandbags) and the freezing temperature, the shoot went very well. We shot for about an hour before we had enough of the cold and decided to pack up.

The Technical Stuff

As I mentioned above, my equipment consisted two different cameras, and one flash with a 48" Strip Softbox.

Large Format

I hadn't shot large format in some time, so I thought this shoot was a good opportunity to dust my Busch Pressman Model D.

I loaded four sheets of 4x5 Ilford HP5. My plan was to take four "primary photos" and supplement each with a set of medium format photos. But due to the wind and cold weather, I felt I didn't have the time to setup some of the more complicated shots that I wanted to capture on large format. So I went with "plan b" and decided to keep the shoot simple. I did a handful of basic setups and primarily focused on shooting medium format, and if I liked a composition enough I'd quickly setup the large format camera.

The photo at the top was the very first photo I took, and honestly turned out to be my favorite. I've been experimenting with tilting the bellows of my camera which gives the portrait the tilt-shift effect. I feel it gives the photo more depth than with traditional focus, almost a 3D effect. I plan to continue experimenting; I want to find more subtle ways to use this method.

Medium Format

I brought my Mamiya RZ67 and two backs loaded with Ilford HP5. I shot with a 110mm f/2.8 fitted with a VND and a 1/4 Tiffen Black Pro-Mist filter. I like the 1/4 Pro-Mist filter because it adds just the smallest amount of softness to the photos without looking like an 80's music video.

It was very bright out, so the VND was set to it's darkest (2.1 which is a 7 stop reduction). The RZ67's shutter speed was set at 1/250 and an aperture of f/2.8. The 4x5's settings were set at 1/60 and a f/4.5 aperture. I got consistent exposure between both cameras.

Lighting

I did standard Rembrandt lighting (pretty much the primary way I light most of my photos) using a Godox AD400 fitted with a gridded 48" strip softbox. I don't recall the power level, but it wasn't at full power. I typically try to make my lighting look natural, so I kept the power low enough so the photos didn't look like they were obviously lit by a flash. I used a gridded strip softbox to keep light spill onto the environment to a minimum. The photo below looks the most un-natural of the bunch.

As you can see, the flash casted an un-natural looking shadow. If I'd been able to lower the flash down to her level, and moved the light closer, it might have given a more dramatic look as well as softer shadows. But when it's 35°F I couldn't spend too much time thinking about it.

Developing & Scanning

I developed two rolls of 120 and four sheets of 4x5 in Kodak D76 developer at 1+1 dilution. Nothing exciting.

I scanned everything on my Epson V850 at 3200dpi, converted the negatives using NLP (Negative Lab Pro), cleaned up dust and made basic exposure/contrast adjustments in Photoshop.

In Closing...

I don't have anything else to add. It was a good shoot and I'm very happen with how the photos turned out.

This was my first full blog post in years, and I apologize if my thoughts are all over the place. I do enjoy writing about my work and I hope to keep up with at least a weekly schedule and hopefully over time I can improve my writing.

Thanks for reading!

Links

Website

Instagram

Flickr

[yesterdaymemories]

November 23 – 26, 2022 - Pt. I

At long last, Asis and I finally visited El Nido, Palawan from November 23 to 26, 2022. The whole family was initially supposed to go there in 2018. We already had our tickets, but due to budget constraints and other unknown reasons, we, siblings, and our partners decided not to go. My parents were the only ones who got to travel at that time. Another time was in 2020, when the pandemic upended everything. And finally, after two years, we were in El Nido, all thanks to my sister, who booked and gifted us these promo round-trip tickets ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡

Technically, we stayed in El Nido for only two days. The other two days were meant for travel time, to and fro. It was honestly exhausting to have to spend a day just to get to your destination. So time-consuming, but what can mere peasants do? We’re not wealthy enough to fly directly to El Nido.

Nov 23, Wednesday – We left home around 9 am, and arrived in Puerto Princesa around 3 pm. Thank heavens, the flight was smooth, no delays. But damn, we were overwhelmed when we got to NAIA Terminal 4 airport. It was extremely crowded, with tons of delayed flights, making it one of the worst airports in the world. Buuuut yea, it was really nice to ride an airplane again. We don’t always get to air travel, so being up in the sky is somewhat special to me. I'm truly amazed at how vast and beautiful the world is from a bird's-eye view. Being up in the sky always makes me feel tiny, like a speck of dust. Such a strange and amazing feeling.

Anyhoo, we rode a shared van when we arrived in Puerto that would transfer us to El Nido. The ride usually took 5 – 6 hours, but since we had to wait for other passengers, it took us 8 hours more or less. There was also a stopover where we had our dinner. We were also surprised at how nice the roads were in Palawan—much better than the roads and highways here in the metro. Must be nice to actually see proper outcomes to where our taxes go (」°ロ°)」 So yup, we arrived at our Airbnb at almost 11 pm.

The Airbnb I found was nice and cozy, just a room with a co-shared kitchenette and bathroom. It was close to everything, but at the same time, it was far from the noise and crowd. Our host, Jhustine, was accommodating and responsive as well.

Nov 24, Thursday – We booked a shared island tour A with APE Tours, as it was the most popular one and recommended by Jhustine. Although it was a bit more expensive compared to other agencies, it was worth it. We arrived just in time at the meeting place with 17 people in our group. The boat was nice and pretty big, with an upper deck. The tour inclusions were light breakfast, lunch, light snacks, beverages, free photos captured during our island-hopping experience, use of life vests, masks, and snorkel, environmental and entrance fees to the sites, and fun and professional crews. The weather was nice that day with only a few brief showers and drizzles. We even saw a rainbow near the rock formations, which was magical. I also learned how to properly use a snorkel, although I was panicking at times due to the presence of many fish. I just made sure Asis was near me or other tourists while snorkeling. They also played beach volleyball on our last island stopover. The tour ended around 5 pm, and it was a wonderful experience being basked in the beauty of El Nido. Grateful to be there. ♡

After our tour, we returned to our Airbnb, freshened up, and got hungry again. We checked out Jhustine’s clear book of rules and recommendations and chose Gibu’s Bulalo Plaza because we were both craving broth and seafood. Their food was cheap and delicious! We also explored the area and found streets full of busy restaurants, pubs, and shops, almost feeling like we were in a foreign country. There were foreigners everywhere, with only a few local tourists. We came across a Ukrainian brewery that served craft beers—IPA and stout. We stayed there for a while, and Asis finished his beers. We also got to watch a FIFA game between Uruguay and South Korea, which was fun as there were Uruguayans in the pub cheering loudly for their team. Afterward, we went back to our temporary home and called it a day. ♡

[memsmedic1]

Africa! (June 10, 2019- October 1, 2019)

After an uneventful 7 1/2 hour flight I landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia just as it was becoming light outside. None of the flights I saw arriving during my layover here, even the 787’s like mine, pulled up to the terminal to unload, so as I was disembarking and walking over to the waiting airport shuttles I was able to enjoy the crisp, non-humidified air at our 8,000 plus feet of elevation.

Ethiopia is an incredibly diverse country. The Great Rift Valley runs right down through the middle of the country, creating incredible rock formations and waterfalls and boasts the main aggregation of Ethiopia’s iconic rock hewn churches…

…In the northeast Afar Region lies the Danakil Depression, over 400 feet below sea level, with active volcanos, colorful salt and other mineral formations, hydrothermal vents spewing out boiling water and sulfuric acid, poisonous clouds of chlorine and other gases, and the hottest average yearly temperature on earth— 94 degrees Fahrenheit...

...To the northwest are the Simien Mountains, one of the few places in Africa where snow regularly falls. Walia ibex, an endangered wild goat, and the Gelada baboon live in the ledges and rocky outposts of the Simien Mountains. The most iconic highlands species is probably the Ethiopian wolf, which is now on the brink of extinction. The Ethiopian Highlands are home to 80 percent of Africas tallest mountains as well as Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile...

…Southern Ethiopia has the highest concentration of nomadic tribes, many of them living in the same way as they have for hundreds of years.

I was first asked to come to Ethiopia almost 3 years ago while I was in North Carolina taking a remote medicine course from Equip International in preparation for moving to Myanmar. The Dr. who developed the curriculum for that course, Dr. Tosimo, has been working in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia for the past 26 years, and been holding rural clinics for 24 years in addition to various other hospital and mission projects. Dr. Tosimo needed a new medical assistant at that time, but I had already committed to going to Myanmar so I couldn’t accept. Earlier this year I received an email from Equip saying that Dr. Tosimo again needed an assistant, this time only for the short term, and all the pieces fell into place perfectly to allow me to be able to come and help this summer.

I had a 5 hour layover in Addis before my connecting flight out to where the city near the clinic I would be working at was located. I wished I could go outside the airport and sightsee but I didn’t think I would be able to make it back in time and get through security.

So I went through immediately and and then walked to my gate to wait for my flight and researched a few of the most interesting facts about Ethiopia:

Ethiopia has just over twice the population of Myanmar at 111 million, and is approximately 1.6 times as big, around twice as big as Texas.

Ethiopia still uses the Julian calendar which has thirteen months per year, and celebrates their New Year in September. Because of this, the Ethiopian calendar is 7 or 8 years behind the international calendar. Yes, when you visit Ethiopia you are actually traveling back in time!

Originally founded in 980 BC, Ethiopia is the oldest independent nation on the continent.

Christianity was declared an official religion in Ethiopia during 333 AD, making Ethiopia one of the first countries to do so. They were not introduced to the religion by Europeans.

Of all 54 countries in Africa, Ethiopia is the sole nation to never have been colonized.

The airport was fairly quiet since all arriving planes unloaded way out on the tarmac. As it started getting close to my boarding time, the sun went away and a large rainstorm rolled in. It rained so hard that my flight was delayed for over an hour.

Finally we boarded a relatively small turboprop and took off. Through about half of the one hour flight I could look down and see mostly flat land below and the other half we flew through big, fluffy white clouds. As we started to descend we flew over two large dirty brown lakes that I found out later were called Abaya, which is over 100 kilometers long, and Chamo.

After landing and picking up my luggage I walked out front where I was picked up by Silas, the driver Dr. Tosimo had sent for me. Counting vans, busses, three-wheeler taxis, private cars and trucks, and the plane we had arrived in, there were less than 20 vehicles altogether in the whole airport so it was very easy to find him. In fact I had been advised by Dr. Tosimo that all I had to do at the airport was “act lost” and I would be approached by my ride! The Dr. lives in south-central Ethiopia 2 1/2 hours from the closest town with an airport so I got to see lots of the countryside as we traveled. One of my very first sights, not 10 minutes from the airport, was seeing a three-wheeler taxi taking a corner way too fast and then swerve to avoid a pedestrian which caused him to flip onto his side and go screeching off the road into the ditch!

There were very few cars on the road, often we were the only vehicle in sight which was a big change from Asia but I was amazed by all the people who were just hanging out on the road talking or milling about as we drove up, often we’d have to thread our way through the middle of a small crowd or honk in order to get by. Just when I’d decided that nothing was going on at these roadside gatherings we came upon another group that were at a partial bridge washout so we had to carefully pick our way across debris and a very narrow, barely drivable path to get through.

Donkeys were thick on the road, either hauling cans of water or pulling carts, and flocks of goats kept playing chicken with us as well.

At one mostly deserted stretch of road Silas suddenly said “crazy baby” and pointed to a naked baby toddling down the middle of the road towards us. As we were contemplating this strange sight a little girl suddenly appeared out of a small opening in the roadside hedge and came running down the road after the escapee!

Soon we started to rapidly gain altitude as we entered the temperate, forest covered mountains where the Drs. town is located. Arriving in the town the weather was cold, foggy, and rainy, as it would be nearly the whole time I was there. At 6,800 feet we weren’t even as high as Addis Ababa, but being in the mountains as opposed to the high plain the weather was much colder.

Not too cold for mosquitoes however. I had to sleep under a mosquito net and take hydroxychloroquine for malaria prophylaxis the whole time I was there, something I never did in Myanmar, plus for 6 weeks after I got back to the States.

We drove up the cobbled street to the small christian hospital in town which is where I rendezvoused with Dr. Tosimo. Even though she is 77 years old, she came to meet me by herself driving her unwieldy manual Land Cruiser with two spare tires on the roof rack. This is the vehicle that we would pack full of clinic supplies and drive out to the rural village where the clinic is held.

After transferring my stuff over to the Land Cruiser and saying thank you to Silas we headed off to the home of the family I would be staying at. I would be renting a manure and stick hut from the night watchman of Dr. Tosimo, and it was in the same compound as his own hut.

Because the dirt track was too steep and slippery to drive on, even in 4-low, I hired a boy who was just happening by where we were parked pushing a clunky homemade wooden wheelbarrow (right down to the wooden wheel) to help transport my stuff down the hill to my new living quarters.

“Hello” I said as I creaked open the rusty tin gate and entered the compound of my new host.

Of course the whole family came bursting out to meet me, and I couldn’t possibly begin sorting out who was who that evening. At first it seemed like there was a least a couple dozen family members, But later I learn that there was actually 11.

After meeting the night watchman, Alamayhu, and greeting him in the traditional manner of a thumb handshake and two or three shoulder bumps, he took me to a little one-room hut and showed me the intricacies of the door lock and finicky electrical situation.

After my luggage was safely stowed and locked inside my hut the two of us hiked back up to the Land Cruiser and we drove to the Drs. house where I had been invited for supper.

Afterward a mild spat ensued between Tosimo and her husband, Dr. Gary, as to whether there was time for tea or if I  had to start back immediately (the night watchman was staying for the night) in order to arrive home before dark, when the giant mountain hyenas, locally known as donkey hyenas, would be on the prowl. There are no lions in the region due to the elevation, but the local hyenas are much larger and bolder than their savannah cousins and are known to kill and eat people on occasion (at least that’s what everyone told me). I ended up leaving soon thereafter armed with a flashlight and had no difficulties finding my way back to my hut.

The next morning I had a closer look at at the construction of my new home. The floor was made of concrete, the walls were framed in small-diameter vertical sticks in the style of a jail cell with a mixture of manure, straw, and muck then chinked in between and liberally spread on both the inside and outside of the sticks for additional strength and insulation. A rusty tin roof capped off the dwelling.

My first order of business was to buy a mop, bucket, and other cleaning supplies and drinking water from town, plus find a shop to buy a SIM card so I could communicate with the doctor. Crossing the compound yard, I walked through the sheet metal gate woven with thorn branches at the top and bottom which opened directly onto the very steep grass and mud “road” outside the front of the compound.

I was immediately inundated by a flock of bright-eyed, laughing, yelling children who probably would have mobbed me when I first arrived yesterday evening if it hadn’t been raining so hard. 

I decided that I needed to take Dr. Tosimo’s advice and hire a boy who could serve as my translator and general factotum to help minimize opportunities for the shopkeepers, taxi drivers, and policemen to overcharge or extort me. 

I smiled and tried talking to them to see who could converse in english, only to be disappointed when not even simplest words could be understood. I played with them for a while and then went back inside to start sweeping as best as I could with a short, coarse little stick broom I had seen while I waited for Alamayhu to get back home.

To the left of my front door as I was looking out was the courtyard, with my host’s hut beyond, straight in front of me was a small orchard of avocado, mango, and papaya trees moving off to the right with the garden beyond, and to my far right was a living hedge of acacia bushes, behind which was a garden and another manure and stick hut.

Straight out past the far edge of the garden where a red abyssinian banana grove started, I saw a little girl sitting on a stump and studying a book held carefully in her lap. She appeared to be around 10-12 years old. She was barefoot and was wearing a faded knee-length navy skirt and a red long sleeve shirt with a severely stretched out neck opening and a hole under one arm. A discolored pink scarf was wrapped around a head of woolly black hair done up in dozens of short, skinny braids. Just then she looked up and saw me so I smiled at her and waved hello before continuing with my sweeping, not giving her a second thought.

A few minutes later as I was sliding my suitcase up against the wall I glanced at the open door and saw the girl standing on the step watching me. I smiled again and she raised her hand and gave me a shy “hi” along with a little smile showing her white teeth. I motioned her to come inside and she immediately came over and helped me finish pushing my suitcase to its intended destination. I told her my name and asked hers which she said was “Hallelujah”, and the she was 10 years old. I asked if she lived here and she said that she was one of Alamayhu’s children.

After thanking her for the help she said “you’re welcome” and then she asked if I wouldn’t like to see her book? I said “ok” and she walked back outside where she had set it down.

We sat down on the steps together and she leaned against my side resting her left arm on my knee as she opened the book to show me it was a 5th grade english primer. We discussed some of the pictures and she read a few pages to me. When I complemented her on her English she said that she really enjoyed school in the village, and also went to Dr. Tosimo’s English classes sometimes.

After awhile I told her that I had to go find someone to help me in town and she immediately asked if she could go with me and help. This was a new thought for me because I had only been thinking about finding a boy to help me, but I dubiously agreed. This was to prove to be the best decision I made while in Ethiopia. Hallelujah ran back home but soon returned, having put her braids back in a ponytail, stuck a tiny plastic gold jewel onto her forehead, and put on a pair of little faded pink dress shoes with a large hole in each toe. We walked to a busier road and hailed a bajaj. On the way Hallelujah rested one hand on my leg and the other hand on my shoulder leaning her head against me. Arriving in town we started walking down the busy shop-lined streets finding what I needed when she slipped her hand into mine and chattered away in pidgin english as we walked.

After purchasing what I needed we went to a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant serving injera and wat where she ate with a vengeance; I wondered if she was often hungry at home. The hand-holding and physical closeness continued on the way back home and I realized that Hallelujah had somehow attached herself to me emotionally in the few short hours I’d been there, though I had no idea to what extent until the end of the day after she had worked very hard for me fetching water, scrubbing my floor, helping me unpack, and accompanying me on a couple more trips to visit the Dr. to get my first set of orders, and to see where the my running water (a stream) was located for bathing and washing clothes.

At this point, as it was growing dark, I asked her how much money I owed her for all her hard work, because if they’re not begging, all the children and especially the adults who help you with anything here, no matter how simple, expect to be paid. Hallelujah stepped back and put her hands up saying “Oh no, no, I don’t want you to pay me anything”. I reminded her of everything she had done to help me and again insisted that I pay her, but she just shook her little braids at me and smiled saying “You’re my brother”.

I was shocked and tried to think of what I could do to show my gratitude. I told her that instead I would buy her a new pair of shoes tomorrow. At first she laughed and refused politely but when she saw I was serious she suddenly teared up and ran into me giving me a great big hug. After pulling her close for a minute and letting her wipe her eyes on my shirt I told her goodnight and off she went back home.

The next morning (and every other morning thereafter) Halle was back at my hut with a steaming hot, cracked mug of tea made in the local style (apparently equal parts water and sugar with a little tea thrown in for color). I suspected that this tea was her own portion but she always denied this allegation and insisted I drink all of it. Afterwards she would help me cook breakfast or else we would go eat at one of the local teashops, and then she would just hang around for the rest of the day, going wherever I needed to go and helping me do whatever I needed to do.

The very first assignment the Dr. delegated to me, starting the day after I arrived, was to daily clean the wound and change the dressings of a man who had been shot through the lower back and abdomen while he was having tea at one of the many little teashops in the nearby village.

This was an assassination attempt that happened only a week or two before Dr. Tosimo and I had arrived, and the patient had just been released from the hospital and still needed vigilant care to hopefully prevent or at least watch out for any signs of infection.

This man, Elias, is actually Alamayhu’s brother-in-law! The back story is that Alamayhu had recently been a key witness in a case resulting in the conviction of quite a few local gang members, and a price had been put on his head.

Four men- a policeman, a hospital security guard, and two of Alamayhu’s neighbors, who were all said to have been profiting from the gang’s activities, decided to collect the bounty, but word got out and Alamayhu hid at the Dr. Tosimo’s house for several days. Growing angry and impatient, the men were passing through the village when they recognized Elias, who had had nothing to do with the trial, and decided to kill him instead.

Without any confrontation or warning, the policeman shot him in the back with his AK, and then the other three attacked him and started beating him with sticks and a length of chain, with one of the neighbors screaming to the policeman “Shoot him again!” but almost instantly a large crowd had gathered, and becoming scared for their own lives, the perpetrators quickly fled.

They were all arrested shortly thereafter and held in jail for only a week before being released on bail until the trial.

At first, I could look right through Elias’s wound into his abdomen, and could have fit a finger through the jagged exit hole, but fortunately, he never got an infection and the holes soon closed, healing completely in a little over a month!

If I had had a job title it would have been the Dr’s. intern and factotum. Every morning I hiked for almost a kilometer across a meadow, through a beautiful gorge and stream crossing, and up through a eucalyptus forest to the Dr’s. house to see if there’s anything she wanted me to help her with. Sometimes I would wash the Land Cruiser, help her cook, fill the large ceramic Katadyn gravity water filter or anything else that the house boy doesn’t do, and then we would go through all of the clinic boxes and make sure everything was restocked and ready for the next clinic, all the while she would be teaching me things she has learned from her decades of adventures. Sometimes I would run errands in town for her if Dr. Gary was busy. Everyone on the street would constantly gawk at me because seeing a white person is a very uncommon sight here. I didn’t feel any malevolence in this region, more of an opportunistic sizing-up, but I made sure I always took Halle or another local with me.

On clinic days I would help load up all the boxes of supplies and then we would all pile in behind everything. On a regular day the clinic crew was comprised of three translators, a general assistant, a dermatology student (thank goodness), the doctor, and myself on board.

Clinic is held under the mango and avocado trees in the front yard of a pastor in a village 1 1/2 to 3 hours away by Land Cruiser, depending on the road conditions, and is down out of the mountains in a much hotter, sunnier, semi jungly region. Once we left the pavement and the risk of being stopped at a checkpoint decreases, I drove because the road quickly degenerates into a muddy morass which I have the most experience with (aside from the Dr., who isn’t able to drive and see patients on the same day). Along the way the kids all run out to the edge of the road and shout “Dr! Dr!” or they just wave and yell hoping we’ll acknowledge them. It makes you feel happy thinking you made their day if you smile or wave, but then you realize just how little traffic comes through this area and that they probably respond the same way to every big vehicle that passes by.

After arriving at the pastors house I would park in the shade of the four large avocado and mango trees and start triaging everyone who’s waiting to be seen, which involves measuring whether their arm is skinny enough to qualify them for an examination by the Dr., their name, age, weight, village, and chief complaint. On the very first day there weren’t very many patients at first, but people had seen us drive through and coupled with the amazing way news travels down the jungle grapevine patients quickly began arriving, and we saw a respectable number that day after all. From then on, we always had a large crowd vying with each other for the prized treatment cards we hand out to people accepted as patients.

Patients are only allowed to seek treatment for 1 malady per week, in order to help cut down on the common practice of faking a whole litany of subjective ailments and reselling the medicine they receive. 

According to Dr. Tosimo, 80-90% of the medicine in sub Saharan Africa is either fake or vastly inferior to medicine everywhere else, so the black market value of genuine, demonstrably effective medicine like we have, even multivitamins, is high. Another huge problem is that even though the government gives hospitals and government clinics plenty of needles and syringes, these places often sell them on the black market and reuse their old ones, so even if the medicine is good, after a couple weeks the patient’s liver and belly swells up from iatrogenic acute hepatitis and they often die, or they develop AIDS later, making people distrustful of the medicine from the hospital.

After all the patients are triaged and marked with a sharpie to prevent them from being paid to stand in line and receive a treatment card for a fatter person, I move over to the tree where the Dr. examines and diagnoses the patients, helping with any additional tests or procedures the patient needs. Dr. Mary is an amazing teacher AND loves teaching so she’s fascinating to listen to and watch how she treats the patients.

Lunch break is taken inside the pastors house away from the dozens of hungry eyes, where we share lentil filled asambusas we purchased from a roadside vendor on the morning drive with him and his family, and he shares homegrown coffee and hominy with us.

In the afternoon the makeshift pharmacy opens in the back of the Land Cruiser and all the patients line up (bunch up) with their treatment card to get whatever medicine or other treatment they have been prescribed and then we return back home in the evening. Usually there’s at least a couple patients who are serious enough to require further evaluation or treatment at the hospital so we take them back with us after drinking our farewell coffee in the pastors house.

Once at the hospital these simple country patients then have to be helped through the convoluted and time consuming process of registration and treatment so taking care of them usually keeps me busy for the next day or two.

Followup is easy because these patients love coming to “their” doctor, most would come to the clinic every week if we let them, so we have to keep their card after they get medicine unless we want to see them again.

Something else I enjoyed doing at the hospital was going on morning rounds with the doctors and residents, and shadowing them as they treated patients during the day, helping where I could. Surprisingly, this tiny hospital in this out-of-the-way town is one of only 10 surgical training centers in Africa, and patients travel from all over Africa and the Middle East to be treated here, so I was able to observe and even assist with dozens of surgeries and ask questions to my hearts content because all the doctors there appeared to love teaching.

*****

Dr. Tosimo had warned me before coming here that I would never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than Ethiopia, and I must be cautious. All the local people, excepting a very small handful, are compulsive thieves, and everything not nailed down or locked up would disappear, and I’d even have to hire a boy to guard my laundry while it dried, or it would be stolen right off the line.

I was very fortunate I got to stay with the family I did though, because they really took me in as a member of their family and always watched out for me when they were around. At first they would always take my soap and bucket of water inside for me at night or whenever I was gone, but that got annoying real fast so I explained that the soap and water was a gift for anyone who needed it, so after that it was always there to use, though in frequent need of replenishment.

One night I forgot to lock my door before I went to bed, and after a peaceful night I was suddenly jolted wide awake by a deafening sound. It was a violent clattering which I initially thought sounded like someone was rattling my door handle, and I immediately remembered that I hadn’t locked it. But then I realized that a large bird had landed on the tin roof directly over my head and was pacing around, more than likely one of the local black and white Thick-billed Ravens. After that I never had any trouble remembering to lock my door before going to sleep!

Even a few years ago there was no public transport here to speak of, and a person either had to own a vehicle or try to hitch a ride with someone who did or on the back of a farmers donkey cart. Now however, there are public busses for inter-city travel and gluts of little blue three wheeled taxis called a bajaj (pronounced the way a kazoo sounds) for in town. These tricycle taxis imported from India are very similar to the tuk-tuks of Thailand and were my primary mode of transportation anywhere in or near town when I wasn’t going somewhere with the doctor.

Bajaj’s are funny for two reasons: The 1st is how underpowered they are. Going up any kind of incline they lose all their momentum and eventually slow down to a comfortable walking pace, so the drivers always go as fast as possible on the downhill parts of the road to get a running start.

The 2nd is how full they are filled. The philosophy here is the same as in Asia- any free airspace is fair game, there doesn’t have to be a seat below. What was probably designed to hold 5 passengers and the driver comfortably sometimes holds twice that much, with people squatting in the aisle halfway on other passengers’ knees and hunching over the gearshift, plus maybe a few babies and someone on the outside hanging off the handle you’re supposed to use to help pull yourself inside. If you’re afraid of fleas or lice or Ebola or anything else this ride is not for you!

Living in Africa means you have zero privacy; at any time someone may stop by to smile at you and try to use any English words they know, or the whole family may decide to come drink tea on my steps or just sit on my floor and talk to each other and smile at me. If I thought about it like camping though it was pretty fancy, so that’s what I did!

10 days after I got here I came down with an unknown sickness. Symptoms were fever/chills, severe stomach pain, muscle pain, inability to take a full breath because of chest tightness, hallucinations, and red eyes. I knew it wasn’t malaria because I hadn’t been in Africa long enough for the plasmodium protozoa to complete their life cycle if I had been infected. Of course, I had just traveled from another malarious hotbed but it seemed astronomically improbable that I would acquire malaria three days before leaving Asia after being there for three years without trouble.

The one disease I absolutely didn’t want it to be was Yellow Fever, not because it’s the worst one, even though it’s right up there, but because that was one of the vaccinations Dr. Tosimo specifically told me to get before I came, which I hadn’t done. I had tried to get it, but the hospital I went to in Thailand was out of stock, and there hadn’t been time to try another one before I left. I ended up treating myself homeopathically at home, and along with some solicitous care from Alamayhu’s family began recovering after just a few days.

On Saturday evening, June 22, there was an attempted coup by the Amharas, the second largest of the 86 tribes in Ethiopia, to take back the power they held for hundreds of years up until communism took over in 1974. The attorney general, a state president and his advisor, and 2 top generals were assassinated, but fortunately the prime minister survived. The current prime minister, Abiy Ahmad, has only been serving for a year and two months (April ‘18), and is generally supported by all but this one tribe, but he has survived 4 assassination attempts so far.

Whenever there is civil unrest all the government offices and banks shut down and the internet is turned off throughout the entire country in an attempt to prevent the offending parties from coordinating with each other, but this is also highly inconvenient for students trying to write research papers and study for finals, people wanting to communicate internationally, and everyone else as well! But this is how the situation was for much of my time in Ethiopia.

On the 23rd Hallelujah and Kidist and I went hiking and climbed to the top of mount Demota, which is the mountain Dr. Tosimo lives on the flanks of. It doesn’t look very imposing from the village because even though it’s 9,547 feet high, there’s several smaller hills to go over and around to get to the top and the summit doesn’t stand out by itself, but it takes about 3 hours of steady hiking, longer when it’s raining, which it was. Higher up the mountain it turns into a subalpine zone with stunted juniper trees, elderberry trees, mountain ash, tons of flowers, and wild peppermint and thyme and other herbs. It was hard to remember I wasn’t in Montana until we got to the very top of the mountain and there were little farms with banana trees and bamboo growing around them! On of the farmers invited us inside his hut out of the rain and let us dry off by his fire and gave us coffee and shoombra (dry roasted garbanzo beans). 

The mountain is named after a diabolical demon who used to terrorize the locals, and in the old witch doctor days (not so long ago) human sacrifices were regularly offered on the summit. But now, even though it is so far from town, a quaint church stands on the spot where the alter once stood and is filled every Sunday.

On the way back down the rain stopped and we had amazing views of the mountains and town below and even lake Abaya off in the distance!

While the lineup of wild animals in the region doesn’t include a lot of the African classics because of the cold and altitude, there’s still a very impressive variety. The apex predator would either be leopards or crocodiles, both of which can be found at this altitude, but the mountain hyena is the animal that everyone is afraid of and always warning me about, they live everywhere in the mountains and are always skulking around looking for an easy meal. Because Ethiopians don’t eat donkeys, when they get too old to work they’re just left out at night and the hyenas eat them. At night I could often hear them laughing in the distance in their psychotic, intoxicated-giggling way.

Other animals include pythons, cobras, vipers, and lots of other snakes, wild pigs, giant African porcupines whose quills I often found laying around, hornbills, the critically endangered Ethiopian wolf, which I eagerly watched for without success, and a cornucopia of small, brightly colored birds that were much more commonly seen than the ones in Asia.

One of delicacies that I enjoyed were the wild blackcaps that grow scattered throughout the steep hillside forests and along the winding mountain trails. Halle and I would sometimes go berry picking when I had the time, which wasn’t often, or I would buy them from the village children. Though a little more seedy than a red raspberry, the flavor is unbeatable and well worth the trouble it takes to collect them. The canes are sometimes close to 8 feet high and can be loaded with fruit but only a few berries ripen at a time so it’s a real challenge to harvest any usable quantity.

Another time I was hiking up in the mountains behind the village with Halle and Tezfanish and got caught in a surprise rainstorm. About a quarter of the way up it started to rain and became cold and miserable. I asked if we should go back home but they wanted us to make it to the top and said no, so we pressed on. After about an hour of drenching rain and bone chilling wind the rain finally let up, though it was still cloudy and blustery. We had all put our ponchos on when the rain started but between the wind deftly flipping them up and blowing mighty sheets of water underneath, and the runoff turning the rocky trail into a big creek we were all soaked to the bone and shivering, with teeth chattering like we were at the North Pole. Then just like that, the clouds parted and the whole mountain began steaming as the friendly sun beamed down and started warming our icy fingers.

Whenever she hadn’t anything better to do, Hallelujah would rummage through my belongings (only after asking for permission). Her prized finds were personal hygiene items such as toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, sunscreen, and my essential oils. As this was nearly my last stop before visiting the States again she inherited most of these things when I left.

One of the local customs is to have bread dipped in tea before the meal (if you’re very poor this might even serve as the whole meal), and whenever she prepared this aperitif something Halle always insisted on doing was feeding me huge bites of tea-soaked bread with her hand. She would do this when we were eating the main meal as well, and on special occasions when I was a guest in Alamayhu’s house or eating somewhere with the doctor, I barely fed myself at all, the preparers of the food or the host would always feed me in this way. I would have thought this act shockingly strange except for the fact that in the inflight cultural propaganda video I watched on my Ethiopian Airlines flight here showcasing the diverse local Ethiopian cultures there was a woman feeding a dignitary some injera and wat this same way. So I at least knew what was happening, that this was a sign of respect, though that didn’t make me feel any less like a baby bird having a beak full of worms poked down his throat!

This custom is called gursha, which is an Amharic word that means “mouthful,” and is a way to show honor to someone. As might be expected, “the practice is a bit of a culture shock for Westerners accustomed to eating from separate plates with sterile forks and spoons,” writes Samuel Mahaffy, author of Eritrean Cooking, “The ceremony defies every social norm in the West around personal space, eating with one’s hands, and much more, placing food in the mouth of another – touching both the food and the one being served.”

On July six I took a bajaj to the hospital where I’d been invited to a late celebration of the 4th of July with some of the interns and doctors and their families. I brought shortcake I’d made in doctor Tosimo’s kitchen and blackcap berry sauce cooked on my charcoal stove from berries that had taken Halle and I a solid 5 hours to forage, but the results were well worth it.

There were fireworks, country music, and a surfeit of genuine American food the likes of which I hadn’t had since last 4th of July; I was in heaven!

In mid-July, Dr. Tosimo’s assistant who usually drove on the paved section of road went to a wedding in Portugal, so I was temporarily promoted to full time driver, checkpoints notwithstanding. While she was there, she stepped backwards off a step and broke her wrist, which was cast wrong and had to be re-broke and re-set once she got back to Ethiopia, so I ended up driving for the entire rest of my time here.

This is an enormous responsibility (not that it isn’t elsewhere) because there’s so many obstacles on the road all the time. If you hit any kind of animal besides a dog you have to pay for it, even though it might have been sleeping in the middle of the road or just sprinted out in front of you. If you hit a person it’s an automatic 2 year prison sentence, whether or not you kill them. In some parts of Ethiopia, if you hit someone, you’re fleeing to prison for protection because the people will chase you down and try to kill you and up to 10 of your passengers to be revenged.

When one of our old translators had to quit, Hallelujah started coming with us on clinic days to take her place. Dr. Tosimo didn’t think that she would have enough comprehension to be useful, but she had a good base to begin with, and had practically been immersed in english since I arrived, and Dr. Tosimo could tell she had improved dramatically in just a few weeks. None of our translators know medical terminology or difficult words, but when the patients talk with us they don’t use terms like that anyway, so all we need is a translator to convert the literal words describing the problem straight across into simple english. 

On one of our hospital days we were just really slammed with patients, some we’d transported ourselves, some we’d referred to see us that day, and a couple were special consultations requested by other doctors. By the time I’d wrapped up everything Dr. Mary needed me to do, all the non-emergency areas of the hospital were closed and it was nearly sunset. So, all sweaty and crawling in phantasmic lice, I headed home to get cleaned up like always.

The bathing area is a quarter of a mile or so up the stream in the gorge below my hut, following a trail in the opposite direction of the one that goes to the doctors house. It was probably sunset when I started out but I passed one or two women still washing clothes and another person scrubbing his boots. By the time my quick, freezing ablutions were completed to my satisfaction twilight was giving way to full night and the last of the other people had vanished.

Anyway, just as I’d finished walking along the creek bottom and was shivering my way up the trail out of the gorge I saw something standing in profile on the trail ahead of me. At first I thought it was a dog, which is not bad in and of itself but could be worrisome since so many are infected with rabies and are much more aggressive at night, but then I realized that at the distance it was from me it seemed to be too large for a dog. It had a large, shaggy head and a back that slouched down towards its hind legs. Then it turned to face me and giggled dementedly and I realized it that it was a hyena. It wasn't hunting me, I just happened to be out and about at the same time it was.

Because I always have to lock my door when I go anywhere I always have my keys with me, which includes a micro Spiderco knife that usually gets through airport security without problems and a super bright little flashlight that I’d been given the first week I moved to Asia, which had always served me faithfully and gotten me out of several jams in the past.

I grabbed my keys out of my water dipper and turned the flashlight on hoping hyenas are afraid of light. It flashed on brightly for about 5 seconds and then suddenly blinked out, leaving me alone in the impending darkness (alas, not All alone). Hyenas are cowardly and don’t attack a difficult target (I told myself) so I broke off a big leafy branch from a bush beside the trail, wondering how many more hyena eyes could be watching me from the other side, and held it up over my head while I started walking towards him. The hyena watched me advance for about 10 feet then he turned and ataxicly trotted off the trail in the direction of the creek, cackling hideously once more after he disappeared and from much farther away. Thankfully I didn’t knowingly come any closer than this to a dangerous animal while I was in Africa.

On Friday August 2nd, while Dr. Gary was at work and while Dr. Tosimo and I were seeing patients at the hospital, somebody broke into their house and stole Dr. Gary’s laptop which was full of very sensitive, important documents. When they found out what had happened the police were called and a crowd gathered outside the house. Some of the kids in Dr. Tosimo’s English class said they had overheard Meret, one of the Dr.’s maids she had recently fired for stealing, bragging that she liked this computer and wanted to steal it, and a 5 year old girl said she had seen two people with black-painted faces at the house. They had seen her too and told her that they would kill her if she said anything to anyone, and she didn’t know their names anyway. But, she replicated the distinctive shuffling walk of one of the painted robbers and the gathered villagers immediately recognized it as the gait of the fired maid’s cousin, so the police arrested them both, and after a long and fruitless interrogation, the police started threatening to send both her and her cousin to Kilinto prison just outside Addis Ababa for 5 years if the computer wasn’t recovered expeditiously. This had the desired effect, and Meret finally cracked and the police got her to confess, after which the computer was retrieved from its hiding place and returned late that night, much to our delight.

On August 7th Dr. Tosimo didn’t have anything she needed my help with and I wasn’t scheduled to volunteer in the OR at the hospital so I decided to go hiking in the mountains and summit mount Demota again. I checked with several friends who would normally want to go with me but they were all either working or busy doing something else, so I foolishly decided that I would just go on my own.

After leaving the compound I walked up several primitive dirt roads until I was out of the village, followed a short trail that led to the main paved road and crossed it, then started across two or three kilometers of rolling, gently ascending country covered with forest and crops and dotted with mud and stick hut farms.

I passed many small children playing and gawking and people out working. Farmers were out in their fields, small children minding the family flock of goats, poor girls hauling water in buckets tied to a bamboo pole balanced on their shoulders, rich girls hauling water by driving a donkey laden with 4 jerry cans at a time, and women washing clothes in the creek.

At one point the trail ran in front of a hut with three guys standing outside the door, they smiled at me and waved as I passed and I didn’t think any more of it. After half a kilometer or so however, I looked back and could see one of those three men coming up the trail after me. I wouldn’t have been intrigued at all by this discovery except that I was walking very quickly, which meant that he must be running when he was out of sight around the corners of the trail in order to gain ground on me.

As I am a diehard procrastinator, I didn’t want to meet him any sooner than I had to, therefore I continued on according to my original design. But after 10 minutes he was close enough behind me that I decided to stop on the edge of the trail in the off chance he simply had urgent business on up the mountain as I did.

Unfortunately, he stopped as well and looked at me with a big, sinister smile on his face as he walked over the small intervening space between us and stuck out his hand. I reached out and shook it, wondering what exactly was going on, but I was quickly enlightened. He was still smiling at me in the most unnatural way possible, and I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for this situation, so I tried to disengage my hand from his while trying a friendly greeting. Then I felt something moving around inside my left front pocket. I looked down in alarm just in time to see that he had reached out with his other hand and expertly yoinked my phone right out of my pocket! I was so shocked I could only think of one thing to do, so I hit him on the chin with my non-dominant hand as hard as I could! He dropped my phone to the mud of the trail and we started fighting, still shaking hands like the handicap in a renaissance festival competition, but soon I was able to retrieve my hostage hand and we started fighting conventionally. He also appeared to be taking a great deal of interest in my little backpack, which only had water and first aid supplies in it, and made a couple grabs for it, but thankfully the straps held. It didn’t seem like any time at all passed before he broke free and retreated back down the path the way we had come. 

I certainly didn’t want to accompany him back, neither did I fancy just standing there waiting for something to happen, so I decided to continue going on my way and hope for the best much like an Egyptian Plover boldly venturing between a crocodilian’s gaping jaws in search of a choice stringy bit of juicy gristle caught between his teeth.

For probably 20 or 30 minutes everything went smoothly, and soon the preceding situation began to seem so bizarre that I thought that just maybe I had misinterpreted or even imagined the whole predicament. Soon enough, far behind me I could just make out the same fellow who had so kindly bethought himself to help me carry my accoutrements following me again, along with a second man from the original three. They were lurking slowly forward around each corner just as I would disappear around the next corner in front of me.

Before too long my trail led past a field where a young boy was attempting to manhandle a handcrafted wooden plow behind an ox, while his father looked on from the edge of the clearing and happily shouted out advice. In fact, there were several family members enjoying the spectacle and they seemed only too pleased to have me join them on the greensward between the field and the forest. I stayed here for 15 or 20 minutes, the subject of smiles and soft chatter while the boy wrestled to control both the stubborn ox and the unwieldy plow, until tiring of his lesson he relinquished the difficult job back to his father and came over to grin at me and flop down onto the grass and catch his breath.

This whole time I’d been keeping one eye on the trail behind me and hadn’t seen any sign of my would-be highwaymen, so I’d hoped that they had seen me stopping to visit with the farm family and decided to take me on the way back, because I was planning to descend on a different trail than the one I was currently on.

Feeling vaguely confident that I had outsmarted my pursuers I said goodbye to the farmer and his family and continued on up the mountain. This is where my route started getting really steep, as the trail left the mixed tree forest interspersed with meadows and farms behind and started cutting up through a darker forest exclusively composed of tall, closely spaced conifers with long, gracefully upturned boughs.

In this forest I came upon a woman gathering mushrooms with her two children, who were delightfully engaged in grabbing hold of the lowest branch on the downhill side of a tree and keeping hold of it while walking away from the tree, pulling the branch down as they went until nearly at the end when the branch would start pulling them off their feet, allowing them to bounce crazy high off the ground with each jump and swing around like two little Tarzans.

After traveling one or two kilometers from the farm I looked back at the bend in the trail as I’d been doing every little bit and once again saw the two men stalking me, and this time they started getting closer no matter how fast I hiked. Eventually, after another couple kilometers of hiking over the more open, grassy country near the summit they had finally got to within 30 feet of me, which is too close for comfort, and I suspected that they were going to make a grab for me any second. 

Now I’m not saying that I was afraid to have a go with both of them, but like I said before, why risk getting stabbed now when there’s a chance to put it off until later?

Right at this spot, slightly off the trail on the downhill side, I suddenly noticed a herd of goats who had been grazing under the watchful eyes of 4 angels in the form of small children. These goatherds had now caught sight of me approaching and were now only watching me with open curiosity. Quickly veering off the trail, I smiled at them and walked down the hill to where they were standing, calling out a Wolaitic greeting. Reaching into my backpack, I pulled out some balloons to share and “chatted” with them while pretending to ignore the men up on the trail, who whisperingly conferred together for a moment and then meandered off on up the trail.

I strongly suspected that the two men had plans to ambush me if I continued up the mountain, and would doubtless overtake me and perform a pincer maneuver with the help of the third stooge if I turned around. I had fallen victim to one of the classic blunders, which says: “never travel through a hostile country without a local companion”, and that was what I needed to remedy in order to get myself out of this pickle. 

A little ways further down the mountain in the middle of an enormous cleared field that appeared to be planted in teff I saw the thatch of a rooftop peeping out from under a cluster of trees (no tin up here), so I went down to the hut to see if anyone was home who might be willing to accompany me on the rest of my journey.

Calling out at the front door brought a man around from the back where he had been working in his garden. I greeted him and then realized that I had no idea how to explain my request to him. Fortunately there was cell service right there, but unfortunately even though my SIM card was working fine, before I could get in contact with someone who could translate for me my data packet ran out and the call rudely ended. Embarrassed, I mimed to the farmer that my phone was similar to a nearby pile of fresh goat droppings, and asked if he had a phone, and if I could use it. Incredibly, the answer to both questions was yes, so I used his antique flip phone to finally get a hold of one of my friends from the hospital named Tommy, and asked him to translate for me. I explained what was going on, showed a picture I had taken of the robbers following me, so he could see how the they were dressed, described what they had been doing, and then said I wanted to pay the farmer just to walk along with me, but if we ran into any of the men and things got sporty I would pay him more. Tommy translated everything for me and told me that he was going to call the police just in case we found the robbers.

The farmer readily agreed to this proposal, though he appeared a little bit confused. He seemed to understand what he was supposed to do, but he couldn’t quite figure out why I was there to begin with, wandering around in the mountains for no reason at all. I wasn’t selling anything, I wasn’t farming, and I wasn’t traveling anywhere (the top of the mountain didn’t register as a destination with him). After hanging up the phone he motioned for me to wait a moment while he went to get something. He walked around to the back of the hut and almost immediately came back holding a long, thin, machete, at the sight of which I conveyed my deepest admiration and approval of his good judgment. 

One of the farmers young boys had come out of the hut and was very friendly and seemed to be interested in what was going on, so I asked him if he would carry my backpack for me, just in case I needed to fight again I wouldn’t be encumbered by it, and he thought that was a great idea.

Then we were off, me hiking up the trail and back into the trees with a perfect stranger, not knowing where his loyalties would lie if I needed his help. Would he remember that he had agreed to help me, or would he decide that this unexpected windfall might be even more profitable if he helped rob me and divided any money or things that he found with the others? For all I knew Mr. Machete might even be related to one or all three attackers, and would change sides to help them out of family loyalty. Unfortunately I couldn’t communicate with my new companion, so I had no sense of what he might be contemplating as we swung along the trail single file. We hadn’t gone around more than three or four corners when I suddenly found myself face to face with the two varlets, who had obviously been loitering around on the trail waiting to ambush me. 

For a brief moment a look of triumph flashed across their faces as they saw their plan succeeding, but then they noticed that I seemed to have inexplicably conjured up some backup, creatio ex nihilo, and they suddenly developed an overpowering urge to study the the flowers and scenery along the side of the trail. I had a bold facade as I walked up to them, but all the while was desperately wondering if Mr. Machete was actually on my side, which I still wasn’t entirely sure of. I grabbed a hold of the first guy and started working on restraining him, but the second guy started trying to hit me from behind, albeit ineffectively, and when we went down to the ground he began picking up softball sized volcanic rocks off the hillside and throwing them at me, hitting both of us. That galvanized Mr. Machete into action, and he stunned the man with a hit from the flat side of his machete and then overpowered him. I finally got my guy into a chokehold and soon he calmed down as well.

After we (I) caught our (my) breath, we started walking back down the trail towards the farm, my prisoner frog marching along in front of me, and Mr. Machete holding the point of his namesake between his prisoners shoulder blades with one hand and holding onto a bloody great handful of the back of his pants with the other hand, a most embarrassing and uncomfortable position to be sure, but they were both coming along as gently as little lambs, so something was working.

When we broke out of the trees back into the open farmland, it seemed like people began to appear out of thin air. I had thought this part of the mountain nearly deserted, but suddenly there were farmers and aunties, grandpas and children, mothers and babies crowding around us, all pointing and jabbering excitedly. I was severely handicapped because not only could I not talk to anybody, but everyone could talk to the prisoners, and they did. I couldn’t tell at first which way the mountain people’s sympathies lay, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. A man came over to me and took custody of my prisoner, and I sat down and waited. My best estimate is that there was 60-75 people gathered on the side of the mountain within 10 minutes. Soon I noticed that everyone was being friendly to me, and that whatever the two men were saying wasn’t being bought by the people. After a while Mr. Machete motioned me over and gave me his phone, again with Tommy on the other end. Tommy said that everything was going well, that the police had talked to the village chief and were on the way, and just to wait where I was.

During this distraction, robber number 2 sensed a brief window of opportunity, leaped to his feet from where he had been sat cross legged on the ground under Mr. Machete’s watchful blade, and almost before anyone could draw in a breath to yell a warning he had streaked through the crowd and was shooting straight down the mountain through the fields, taking enormous, moonwalking strides. 

The farmer didn’t do anything at all except squint a little, but there was another explosion from out of the crowd, and a teenage boy who I would learn was one of Mr. Machete’s older sons hurled himself over the edge of the trail in brave pursuit.

Now this part of the mountain was really, really steep, and the cleared farmland went all the way down to a ravine with a stream in it 800 vertical feet below. So myself and everyone in the crowd had a birds eye view of one of the most impressive foot chases I’ve ever seen. The robber was fast, and was running from certain punishment, but the boy knew this field by heart, was probably a little more acclimatized to the elevation, and had all his friends and family judging him from behind. They were a close match, but slowly and surely the boy was closing the distance between himself and his quarry, and just before they hit the bottom of the ravine he got close enough to push the robber, sending him spinning and cartwheeling into a crumpled heap next to the water.

A couple men went partway down to help the boy with retrieval, but he handled the robber just fine and didn’t look like he needed any help. It took substantially longer for the two runners to come back up the mountain than it had taken them to go down, and when the prisoner was hauled back up to the crowd of incensed villagers they seemed almost angry enough to kill him on the spot, but the boy was cheered and given a victorious welcome!

We probably sat on the mountainside for another hour before the chief decided that we would start taking the two men down the trail to meet the police part way. So they were prodded up and secured, and off we went. I wasn’t in charge of either prisoner so I took my small backpack back from the little boy and walked along at the back of the procession with him and his older brother the downhill-cross-country racing-champion. 

We hiked for several kilometers back down the mountain before, sure enough, we met Tommy and a single policeman coming up the trail toward us. I was very happy to see Tommy, but I was a little bit nervous because I wasn’t sure what the policeman was going to do. I didn’t have to worry long though. For some reason, probably because he was on his own, the policeman was carrying a large metal bar instead of the standard-issue nightstick, and the first thing he did was take that bar and thwack the first schmuck with all his might across the stomach, doubling him over. He then dropped him the rest of the way to the ground and pushed his face right into the mud of the trail and ground it in several times, despite the robbers attempts to avoid the improvised spa treatment. After that both schlemiels were hit with several more hard, energetic, interrogations before we walked the last kilometer or so out to the road I had crossed on my way to the mountain. Here were two more policemen waiting for us with a public transport bus they had pulled over and commandeered to take into town.

I paid and thanked Mr. Machete and his two boys for their quite unexpected and wholehearted help, and then we were off.

At the police station I gave a statement and showed my evidence before thanking and also “thanking” the policemen who had helped me and leaving.

In Ethiopia there is such blatant graft you openly have to pay the police to do their job. Everyone is so comfortable with it that when I was heading out of the police station one of the officers who had helped me came over and asked for a “gift” to give the third policeman, who had already gone back to work again! Who knows if he ever received it.

In order the properly “thank” the two remaining policemen, Tommy said that they wanted me to take them out for a meal, which sounded like a fair bribe to me. Of course the switchboard operator and the sergeant on duty also felt like they were essential to the success of the operation and invited themselves to join us, (I’m just lucky the whole station didn’t decide to close up shop and come along) and we went to a restaurant specializing in probably the second most famous Ethiopian cuisine, tere siga (www.atlasobscura.com/foods/tere-siga), which is nothing more than a platter of fresh raw meat chunks and spicy dipping sauce. The experience was very interesting to be sure, but I just couldn’t bring myself to try it.

Later on when I was preparing to leave Ethiopia, Dr. Tosimo was fixing me up with all the medicines I would need to treat myself for any diseases or parasites that I might have acquired while I was there, and she specifically mentioned that if I had eaten any tere siga there was two additional drugs I would have to buy to treat the burrowing worms I probably had when I got home, because she wouldn’t treat stupidity!

On the 10th I rented a motorcycle and a couple of us headed down out of the mountains to visit a famous waterfall near the area where our clinic is held. It was raining pretty hard when we started but based on previous experience I knew that the rain would stop and the sun would come out as soon as we made it down to the flatlands as it did every day we went to clinic.

Today of course had to be different, in keeping with all the other foul weather days I tried to do stuff, and the farther we rode the harder it rained, until we were soaked to the bone and freezing cold. I also knew that the dirt track out to the falls would be a muddy morass; challenging in a 4 wheel drive truck and impassable on a bike, so I pulled off the road in front of a small mud-stick hut and we squelched over to the open door to ask for a few minutes at their fire.

This was graciously granted, and we soon found ourselves sandwiched in between 4 or 5 kids and the family cow, all trying to stay warm in the one room hut/stable! After regaining sensation in my fingers and dumping out my boots and wringing out my socks, I gave some money to one of the boys and asked him to buy asambusas for everyone. An asambusa is like a samosa that’s filled with dry cooked lentils and spices, wrapped in thin dough in the shape of a triangle, and deep fried. If only the cooking oil was hot they would be really delicious, but the oil is never hot enough and it seeps in and saturates the whole thing during cooking, making them an acquired taste.

The mother of the house roasted a couple ears of freshly harvested field corn over the hot coals and we ate, feeding the cobs to the pampered cow of the house.

After lunch, the rain had almost abated so we said goodbye and rode back home, determining to try to reach the waterfall another time.

August 13th I woke up early and had coffee at my hosts house because today was the day that the four men who had tried to kill Elias (my hosts brother-in-law) were going to trial!

It had rained cats and dogs all night and the morning was foggy and dark with a cold wind disconsolately blowing in sporadic gusts of rain. During coffee we were informed that last night, one of Elias’s extended family members who had been with him when he was shot and was one of the witnesses had been attacked and horribly beaten with a nailed club and robbed; nobody thought that was a coincidence.

Since the road was a muddy morass I decided to be clever and tie a plastic bag around each foot to keep my shoes clean on the 1 km walk to catch a bajaj into town.

My efforts were in vain though, for when I smugly climbed into the bajaj and took the bags off I found that mud had seeped in through the holes that had developed in each bag and uniformly covered my entire shoe surface in a fine brown film.

I realized it wouldn’t matter though when I found out that we weren’t going to the high courthouse, but instead to a smaller petty court directly outside the local prison. This area was rural and muddy and slippery as well so everyone’s shoes matched mine.

After making it down the steep muddy road to the entrance of the unimposing court we were told that the location had been changed last minute to the high court, so we retraced our way back up the mud road to the cobblestone road and walked until another bajaj chanced along and took us across town to the main courthouse.

By now it was nearly 9 o’clock which was when the judge was supposed to open the courtroom to hear this case, but he delayed for quite some time first. After finally initiating proceedings it was discovered that the four defendants were nowhere to be found! The judge found them in contempt of court and convicted them of all charges in absentia, but withheld sentencing until they could be caught and arraigned in the future. In the meantime, the family members of the four who had initially bailed them out of jail using themselves as surety were rounded up and thrown in jail themselves!

On Monday, August 19th, Alamayhu and I woke up extra early to go out to the area of the clinic to guide some of the rural village ladies we’d already examined at our previous clinics back to the hospital in town to get prolapse surgery. Apparently there is a man who normally does this but his brothers wife had just died and the funeral was today so he wasn’t able to help this time.

At this hour there were no bajaj’s so we had to walk all the way from our village into town and then over to the bus station. Finding a van going in the right direction we started off, and after a couple hours and transferring once to a different bus in the town halfway to our destination, we arrived and found the women waiting for us. Unfortunately though, the money which had been given for their travel and other expenses was still with the man who normally takes these patients, so we had to hire a motorcycle taxi to take us the rest of the way to our clinic village and fetch it.

Returning to our patients we set out to get everyone loaded on a bus, but after Alamayhu and I boarded the next bus heading back towards town the driver immediately started driving away, even though the bus was practically empty!

Alamayhu hollered at him to stop but he said something about having all the passengers board several blocks away from the station, which was really odd. The driver did stop 4 or 5 blocks down the street but he seemed to be in a terrific rush and before our patients arrived the second time he closed the doors and started heading out of town again!

Frustrated we stopped the bus and got off, walking back to rejoin the patients who were walking towards the place the bus driver had said he would let people board. We walked back to the station, on the way meeting some policeman and learning that the driver had tried to leave town without filing the necessary paperwork and was now going to be arrested until he could pay a 5,000 Birr fine ($172.00, an astronomical sum here).

Finally getting all our patients settled into the next bus, we waited until it was full and then started off. Several kilometers down the road we had an unexpected stop because our radiator had suddenly malfunctioned; it had either cracked or been punctured and the engine was overheating.

After impatiently teasing off the cap several gallons of dirty brown river water were poured in but just ran right out onto the road, so one of the bus employees rented a motorcycle from a man in the omnipresent crowd and buzzed off down the road. After 5 or 10 minutes he was back with two small sachets of something, which turned out to be finely ground tea leaves. Pouring both packs into the radiator seemed to fix the leak, and soon we were on our way again.

As we were coming into the town of the half-way bus stop, our bus started making a terrible noise, and just as we were making the turn into the bus stop the transmission went out and it died, leaving us parked orthogonally blocking the main road and the entrance to the but stop. Fortunately the exit was unencumbered, and after finding the right van and getting our patients loaded up in it, the rest of the trip was uneventful. While we didn’t make it back to the hospital in time for all the surgeries to take place that day, all the patients were seen either that afternoon or the next morning.

As my three month Ethiopian visa began to run out I tried to decide whether I should extend it or do something else. Originally I was only supposed to help Tosimo until her regular intern came back, but Dr. Tosimo had offered to have me stay on indefinitely and I’d already spent an extra month. I would have loved to stay longer but I was hoping I’d be able to go on another medical trip to India with my M-EMS team in December, and I had a lot of work to do before then if that were to happen.

Another thing I really wanted to do was visit Tanzania, the country where my dad was born and grew up. Johann, an old friend of mine, also happened to be working on a farm in Tanzania at the time, and I thought it would be so much fun to visit him as well.

Tommy, one of my new friends I’d met at the hospital, was also wanting to visit either Kenya or Tanzania, and I thought that it would be much better to go with someone anyway. So on Sunday, August 25th, I took a bajaj into town to meet Tommy at the main intersection and travel up to Addis to apply for our Tanzanian visas.

When I got to the intersection I went to call Tommy and discovered I was out of phone time, which I hated. In all my travels, I’ve never felt like such a target as here. Guys are always eyeing you predatorily, sizing you up. It’s worse if you’re not purposefully going somewhere, and especially worse with luggage or a backpack like I had on. Several times I had people try to pickpocket me on busses or while walking or standing somewhere, and often one or more guys would either walk right behind me or deliberately try to block my path, looking for an opportunity. Waiting unsuccessfully at the intersection, I finally went to look for a place to buy phone time.

A bystander pointed to a shop where I could find a phone card, and I went inside. It turned out to be a darkly lit tea house/chat room a few steps below street level,  with several sullen patrons staring at me. I asked for what I needed, fully knowing the answer, and was not disappointed. Next I asked if anyone knew where I could get a phone card, and one of the guys came over right beside me with what I thought was a sinister smile and said “yeah, I know,” without elucidating or breaking eye contact. I thought for sure I was about to be subjected to another attempted robbery, but I asked him to show me where to get it, and he did! I bought two and gave him one, and we were both happy.

After entering the code and topping up my balance, I called Tommy and we finally met up for ginger tea before we had to leave.

11 PM that night Tommy and I boarded the van which would take us up to the capital. Along the way we saw several hyenas, as we do every time when out and about at night, and passed through several severe rain squalls, but didn’t have any trouble.

The next morning after arriving in Addis Ababa we first went to the Tanzanian Embassy to get the application process started. After getting all the prerequisite photos, letters, stamps, and fees out of the way, we left our passports to the tender mercies of the front desk lady, and started looking for a hospital where I could get my long overdue Yellow Fever vaccination, as I could not enter a non-Yellow Fever country without it.

After checking at several different hospitals and putting several miles on our shoes, I found out that in the entire country there is only one Yellow Fever vaccine program, with only one location, and only one nurse authorized to administer it!

Finally finding the tiny Yellow Fever clinic tucked away on the grounds of the Black Lion Hospital, we noted a relatively massive crowd waiting outside. As it turned out, 590 people were waiting in “line” (I use this term loosely) for the nurse to return from lunch break and be vaccinated!

Everything worked out in the end however, because I was able to get the shot for nearly 1/100th of the price I would have paid in America (although it was very possibly only 1/100th the quality as well).

Sunburned for the first time since leaving Asia and with sore feet, we took a taxi to a hotel that one of Tommy’s friends manages and spent the night, returning home on Tuesday the 27th.

On Thursday the 29th I went to Dr. Tosimo’s clinic for the last time, and she even made an exception to the rigid schedule to allow a couple hours in the afternoon to visit the spectacular Ajora Falls. These twin waterfalls plunge 250 meters uninterrupted straight down into a nearly impenetrable rainforest gorge and form one of the countless tributaries of the mighty Omo River.

On Friday I worked my last shift at the hospital, where I helped again in the O.R. and said goodbye to as many of my friends as I could.

Leaving my host family was so much harder than I expected. Saturday evening, the day before I left they decorated the whole living/dining room with juniper trees, wild flowers, and tissue paper and strew the floor with corn leaves and long paper shreds. They also prepared an amazing feast for me, first we had coffee and popcorn, then there was bread and kita with some of my favorite dishes.

After staying up way too late just visiting, there was crying and many sad goodbyes, then I went back to my own hut to pack.

The next morning at 5 AM I was up again getting ready to leave and carrying my stuff through the rain up the steep muddy track to where vehicles can drive. Dr. Tosimo picked me up and we drove into town where she dropped me off along the side of the road where the bus would pick us up on the way out of town.

Even though I’d said goodbye to her along with the rest of the family just a few hours before, Hallelujah insisted on waking up early and coming to the bus stop to see me off with more hugs and tears.

Tommy had bought our tickets already and had told me that the bus would leave at 7 AM but to come at least half an hour early, so I did. Tommy, however, was not there yet. At 20-to-7 the bus arrived, but Tommy and my bus ticket had not. I was hoping that the bus would at least wait until the scheduled departure time to leave, but as soon as the people waiting had boarded, the bus dumped the airbrakes and started to leave!

I would have been completely screwed except that the head midwife from the hospital who I’d worked closely with also happened to be traveling to Addis Ababa on the same bus on the same day on unrelated business, and when he saw that I hadn’t gotten on he was able to hold the bus for a couple of minutes until Tommy arrived!

The trip north was uneventful except for one flat tire half way to Addis. But after arriving in the city, Tommy was very nearly thrown out of our taxi when the front door suddenly swung open going around the first corner on the way to our hotel! I immediately stopped leaning on my own door as a precaution and Tommy had to hold his shut for the rest of the trip.

The next morning, Monday the 2nd, we took a less surprising taxi to the Tanzanian Embassy to pick up our passports, hopefully with our Tanzanian visas inside. I wasn’t worried about my visa, but it’s quite challenging for Ethiopians to get approval to enter Tanzania and some of the other surrounding countries because they have a habit of not going back home. Tommy and I had put an enormous amount of research and work into getting all the necessary paperwork and approvals before applying, but that doesn’t mean anything.

Earlier this year Tommy had tried to visit Kenya and had been denied entry so we were holding our breath this time.

When we arrived at the embassy though we found out that our applications had been approved and we both had our visas! We immediately went and ordered pizza to celebrate!

Very early the next morning we took a shuttle to the airport and by 1030 we were on our way to Tanzania! Landing at 1320 Tommy was ecstatic, having been on his first escalator and first airplane ride! We picked up our luggage and were met outside the terminal by George, an acquaintance of Johann’s, who took us all over the city trying to withdraw money, exchange money, buy bus tickets for the next morning, purchase SIM cards, get supper, and finally took us to a hotel for some much needed sleep.

Compared to Addis Ababa, Dar Es Salaam  is very hot, humid, and flat. It’s also much greener, with cherry trees and coconut palms growing throughout the city and a much greater variety of fruit and street food for sale.

At 4 AM on the morning of Wednesday the fourth we were up and getting ready to leave for the bus that would take us 11 hours southwest into the Southern Highlands to Kibidula, the giant farm Where my friend has been working at.

Along the way I was finally able to catch sight of some of the famous African wildlife including giraffes, zebras, baboons, lots of impalas, and wildebeests, passing through savanna, dry scrub forest, a sandy rocky desert with baobab trees growing in it, and many towns and villages. This was also the first time Tommy had seen some of these animals in person.

Arriving at Mafinga, the nearest town to the farm, we were met by the Printer, who had just returned from vacation in the States and traveled out from Dar on a faster bus that same morning. He had already secured a taxi, and the three of us rode out the last hour or so to the farm together.

Here we met up with my friend Johann, whom I hadn’t seen in years, and started getting caught up and unpacked. We would be staying in his house sleeping on the floor for the duration of our stay.

Kibidula is a 6,000 acre avocado farm and agricultural school located at about 6,000 feet ASL in the Miombo Woodland, Southern Highlands. In the German colonial days, this area grew pyrethrum that was processed in Mafinga.

Because of it’s high elevation and closeness to the equator, there is very little atmospheric buffer and the sun is unforgiving, harshly scorching anything it touches. There is also a vast temperature swing between day and night, and sun and shade, you can easily sweat during the day, but if there’s no sun the air is cool even during the day, and at night becomes downright cold.

Early the next morning the three of us woke up and went over to the farm managers house for 6AM breakfast, and then built tables in the wood shop until lunchtime. After lunch we finished building an improvised screen made out of two 55 gallon drums to protect the intake of the pump which pumps water out of a large reservoir up into the irrigation dam for the farm. The day before a large stick had been sucked into the pump and jammed it so it needed to be removed and a filter placed so it wouldn’t happen again, and I was able to help.

We needed to be able to scuba dive down to clear away debris from the pump intake and secure the screen in place, but we didn’t hardly have any scuba gear, so we had to improvise. One of the farm managers is a scuba instructor, and he had a mask, wetsuit, fins, and a regulator, which was a good start.

We took two canoes and lashed them together with saplings to form a bodyless catamaran for our makeshift dive boat. Next we took an oilless air compressor and a portable generator to power it and secured them in one side of our boat, and used a custom fitting to attach the regulator to the end of two 30-foot compressor hoses to create an improvised hookah dive setup.

Using a length of tow chain as a weight belt and a fisherman’s self-inflatable life vest as a BCD we were ready!

We paddled out into the reservoir towing the screen in the water behind our twin-hull craft and tied off at the buoy marking the pump’s location. Donning the equipment one at a time we dove down 30 feet into the frigid, nearly zero-visibility water to dig out a space for the filter to rest and secure it in place.

After the job was finished we immediately went to our respective homes and took hot showers!

That night after supper Johann and Tommy and I along with several other volunteers and farm residents loaded up three mules with our water and blankets to go camping. Not regular camping though!

Riding out through the grasslands and scrub forest we came to a grove of acacia trees where we stopped and built a fire and relaxed for a while. When we were ready for bed we took our blankets and climbed up into the acacias all the way to their flat tops, well out of reach of any hungry lions, where we carefully searched for a place with more sturdy underlying branches and less thorns to spread out our blankets on and settle down to sleep, at least thirty feet off the ground and directly underneath the waxing gibbous moon and brilliant Southern Hemisphere stars.

This is a Kibidula tradition that happens at least once per year, and as unsafe as it sounds, no one has died yet, although people have broken through and fallen out of the trees in the past!

Sleeping on the treetops evokes feelings of intense peril, as any port or starboard movement will certainly send you plummeting down through a hole in your mattress! In addition, the hard, poorly spaced branches are poking up into the bottom blanket making it impossible to get comfortable; they’re reassuring in a way, but not sleep friendly. Night in the Southern Highlands is also very cold, and even though it doesn’t rain for months at a time during the dry season, a heavy dew falls every night and saturates the grass, trees, and our blankets (somehow leaving the thick layer of powdery dust on the roads perfectly dry).

In other words, it was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything!

The next morning we stiffly unpeeled ourselves from the canopy and gingerly climbed back down the wet trees and rode back to the farm. We spent the morning in the shop building tables again, and after lunch hauled some of them to their future home in the avocado packing plant, swept and mopped our house, and then drove way out to a dam construction site to help bring back some of the equipment for the weekend.

The next day on September 7 we hiked out to the old dirt colonial-era Cape Town-Cairo highway that passes near one side of the farm. At one spot an underground spring had abruptly eroded the road down thirty feet or so and we climbed down and explored the resulting box canyon. Even though the road is no longer maintained it is still used, which makes this spot especially treacherous.

On the 8th I finally had a chance to wash my clothes, which Tommy thanked me for, then Johann and I mixed potting soil for a new batch of avocado seedlings for the rest of the morning and early afternoon. Later that afternoon, a group of us took some motorcycles to go bouldering and abseiling in a cool valley full of massive rock outcroppings 45 minutes or so from the farm.

Early the next morning Tommy, Johann, and I left Kibidula to start heading to Dar Es Salaam so Johann could fly back home, but we wanted to go on a safari first, and a few other people at Kibidula did too, so we all went together.

Ruaha National Park is the largest park in Tanzania, and it’s only a 4-5 hour drive from the farm, and not too far out of our way. After entering the park we got to see all kinds of amazing animals, from tsetse flies to lions. That night we slept in the park with an armed ranger escorting us around and lions roaring and coughing nearby all night!

In the morning we explored the park for a few more hours and then headed out to Iringa, where the three of us could get a bus to Dar. After lunch and going to the market, we said goodbye and went to our hotel, while everyone else drove back to Kibidula.

That evening as we were walking back to our hotel after supper we were accosted by a fat man claiming to be an immigration officer who said we needed to  come with him to the police station and answer some questions. He had a hokey ID card he waved in our faces as if we could read Swahili, and then he grabbed Tommy’s arm and tried to force us to get into his non-government-issue car. As he was obviously an imposter we extricated ourselves from his toils posthaste and took a maze of side streets and backtracked several times to make sure we weren’t followed back to our lodgings.

The next morning on the 11th we took the bus back to Dar es Salaam and accompanied Johann to the airport so he could fly back home later that night.

Afterwards we went back into town and met again with a friend of George’s who has a Kilimanjaro trekking company. Tommy and I had really been hoping to climb Kilimanjaro while we were in Tanzania but we weren’t sure if it would work out until after negotiating a second time. It also turned out that there was a tour starting in two days that we could join, which worked out really well for us  time wise, so the next morning we took a bus north to Moshi, where the trek would start from. Arriving in town, we were met by the local tour coordinator who took us to our hotel for the night and made sure we had everything we needed.

The next morning we met our guide, Kaliki, and assistant guide, Douglas, and got outfitted with the rest of the cold-weather gear we would need on the mountain, then drove out to the trailhead of the Marangu Route, which we would be following. Happily for us, the group we were supposed to be joining was under time constraints and had started the climb the day before, allowing us to ascend separately.

While researching this climb, we’d found out that Kilimanjaro is a beast to summit and has a less than 40% success rate: From the wicket gate at the start of the trail we would ascend from 1,879 meters (6,165 feet) to 5,895 meters (19,341 feet), which is 4,016 vertical meters (13,176 vertical feet), and cover 86 km (53 miles) over 5 days.

As one climbs in altitude the percentage of oxygen in the air remains steady at about 21% (up to approximately 21,000 meters or 69,000 feet) but the higher one goes the lower the air pressure will be, and the less densely the gas particles are packed together, so you get less oxygen per breath. At 20,000 feet there’s nearly half the number of oxygen particles in the air as at sea level.

Mount Kilimanjaro is divided into four extremely distinct vegetation zones:

Montane Forest (1,800 to 2,800 meters; 5,850 to 9,100 feet); this zone feels like a tropical rainforest with enormous moss-laden trees, many streams and waterfalls, tropical flowers and vines, and many monkeys and colorful birds.

Moorland (3,000 to 4,000 meters; 9,750 feet to 13,000 feet); consisting of grass, scrub trees, sagebrush, everlasting flowers, Giant Heath, and otherworldly cactusy plants including Giant Lobelia, Giant Senecio, and Giant Groundsels, which can tower over 20 feet high!

Alpine Desert (4,000 to 5,000 meters; 13,000 to 16,250 feet); this is a cold, dry, windy, harsh environment where only the most hardy plants and small animals can survive.

Arctic (5,000 to 5,895 meters; 16,250 feet to 19,341 feet); a moonscape of scree and glaciers. The only plant found in this zone is Helichrysum newii, which grows around the fumaroles (volcanic vents) in Kibo’s crater.

The most dangerous things we had to watch out for (aside from dehydration, Acute Mountain Sickness, and malaria) was probably Cape Buffalo and wild elephants, which left plentiful evidence of their presence in both the Montane Forest and Moorland.

My biggest concern, however, was whether or not my antique pair of EMS boots would survive the mountain. These are the same boots I had been using off and on for the last 7 years, and had been lamenting were completely worn out in Ethiopia (meaning they literally fell apart). I would have thrown them away except I didn’t have anything else to replace them with, so I had the soles re-glued and re-sewn instead. Now the soles were actually starting to disintegrate in addition to separating from the rest of the shoe, and I took pains to avoid sliding them over the trail or wedging them between rocks where possible.

Fortunately for me, the 9 year old Uyghur cobbler at the Chinese Bates Re-education Factory was a master of her craft, and they lasted me all the way to the summit and back to Moshi, where I tried to give them a long overdue funeral, but one of our guides saw me throwing them away and said he could use them or give them to one of the porters, so  now they’ll probably be in service for another 7 years! (Starting in 2017, Bates claims to once again be producing a growing range of military/other uniformed services and motorcycle boots 100% sourced and assembled in the USA.)

After reaching camp each evening and resting for a bit, Tommy and I had to take mandatory acclimatization excursions to a higher altitude beyond camp in order to help minimize our chances of getting Acute Mountain Sickness (altitude sickness) and failing to summit. I was very grateful that I had just come from living and exercising at nearly 9,000 feet, or else I don’t know if the daily acclimatization regimen would have been enough.

On the third day we were met by a team of porters evacuating a well bundled up AMS victim off the mountain on a stretcher, and later that afternoon had a helicopter fly past us and briefly land at the camp we were en route to. We thought they were evacuating another patient, but found out that evening that they were flying in a technical rope rescue team to recover the body of a porter who had fallen off a ledge at a difficult to reach spot inside the crater.

Finally we made it to Kibo hut, the base camp we would try to summit from. Because it’s located at 4,720 meters (15,486 feet) there is a high risk of getting AMS even here, so we’d only be staying for a few hours to try to eat and sleep before summiting that night.

I was already feeling sick, with a pounding headache, insomnia last night and this night, absolutely not feeling hungry or thirsty and having to force myself to do both, shortness of breath, and a rapid pulse. When I checked my oxygen saturation I was at 82% in base camp! (Down from 99% normally.)

At 12 AM on September 16 we woke up, or rather got up because neither one of us could sleep, and got ready for our summit attempt. We put on every piece of warm clothing we had and filled our water bottles, then after having tea we started at 1 o’clock.

There was a brilliant, frosty-bright waning gibbous moon to light our path so we didn’t need to use our flashlights, even though from some places a slip could be fatal. 

We gained nearly 4,000 feet of altitude in 4 km, scrambling up a volcanic scree slide that seemed nearly vertical, with each step seeming to slide back to the step’s starting point every time we moved. Here we could finally feel the full force of the high altitude, having difficulty breathing, gasping for breath, terrible coordination, and overwhelming exhaustion. 

Finally arriving at the top, we followed the rim of the crater around for another kilometer and reached the summit at 0618, exactly at sunrise!

The temperature was well below zero so we only stayed at the top long enough for pictures and then started to retrace our way back down off the mountain.

We got back down into Moshi on the evening of the 17th, and took a bus down to Dar Es Salaam on the 18th. There was an Ebola scare going on in Dar while we were up north and getting ready to go back there, but luckily the autopsies tested negative and we continued our trip as scheduled.

On September 20 we rode the ferry across to Zanzibar and rested our sore muscles for a few days scuba diving and kite surfing before Tommy flew back to Ethiopia and I started flying back to the States on the 24th.

Checking my luggage at the airport revealed it was severely overweight and I had to jettison some nonessentials plus take a second carry-on with me on the plane. I quickly selected some random heavy items to fill my second carry-on and headed through security. My bag was flagged and when security searched it they found my large serrated fixed-blade dive knife and balisong, both of which I’d completely forgotten about while hastily redistributing my luggage. This looked horrible, but fortunately security was understanding, although they had to confiscate both knives.

I flew from Tanzania to Qatar to JFK, where I had a horrible 9 hour layover, and then a 6 hour flight to Seattle, Washington where my grandma and grandpa were waiting to pick me up!

Heading for home we stopped along the way at what has always been an Indian restaurant to eat on our way home, but after it was too late to leave we discovered that, of all improbable coincidences, it was now only serving East African food :(! It was nice anyway, although I wasn’t anywhere near ready to start craving it or wanting it yet.

After supper we started off in earnest and finally made it to my grandparents house around 1230 AM, after nearly 48 hours of traveling. I spent a few days at their house recovering from jet lag, then headed for home, finally arriving on Tuesday, October 1st, after having been gone over a year and a half!

[martin-jordan]

End of year review 2023

It’s been over 2 years since the last note. That’s a while. In between, a few things have happened, including me moving to Berlin again and joining the German government’s Digital Service as the first Head of Design. I’ve managed to write notes about the work I do there almost every week. So do have a look there, if you’re interested in any of that.

Following a question format developed by Prof. Dr. Molly Steenson, which I discovered on Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino’s blog, I am answering her list of questions to reflect my 2023.

What did you do in 2023 that you’d never done before? I have never led such a big team. The design and user research team at Digital Service is now 20 people strong. By the end of this year, 2024, we might get closer to 30. I’m still getting used to that responsibility.

Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn’t bother to make any promises to myself for 2023. So there was nothing to keep. I intended to run, eat well – primarily vegan – and do public speaking and writing, though. I failed miserably at running. The rest was alright.

Did anyone close to you give birth? Some people I work with gave birth, but I don’t feel close to them.

Did anyone close to you die? Luckily not.

What countries did you visit? Only a few. I did not fly at all, which I am proud of. I visited the UK several times, including Scotland – a 19-hour non-stop train journey from Berlin. I visited France (Paris) once and Switzerland twice for leisure, including skiing in Saas-Fee, close to Zermatt. 2024 will be different. I will travel internationally again.

What would you like to have in 2024 that you lacked in 2023? A better work-life balance. I worked seriously long hours in 2024 – at a level that even I don’t find sustainable.

What date from 2023 will remain etched upon your memory? My own and another birthday. I know that I did then. There is no other specific date that I remember – maybe that’s even a good thing.

What was your biggest achievement of the year? I find it difficult to name one. I am proud of what the team is doing; I wrote and delivered an all-new talk on the ‘long slog of public service design’ with Kara that was well-received at 2 conferences. I also co-ran a 24-hour remote conference, which was a success.

What was your biggest failure? I didn’t get anyone else in the German public sector to embrace the Service Standard or any senior person to embrace it publicly.

Did you suffer illness or injury? I fell in the first 5 minutes of skiing in December – straight on my skier's thumb from 2001. I am still recovering from that several weeks later. Apart from that, I was fine.

What was the best thing you bought? A Vitsœ 606 shelf for my living room. I installed it for my birthday, and it brings joy every day. It took me over 15 years to convert from a clueless design student to a customer. That’s when I worked for Thomas Manss & Company, which did all the design and branding for Vitsœ.

Whose behaviour merited celebration? Countless anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-fossil fuel activists. More closely, I admire and respect our CEO, Christina and how she is navigating the growing Digital Service through a tricky political and stakeholder landscape.

Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? The behaviour of a few German ministers that actively block the progress they set out in their party manifestos and coalition treaty from 2021.

Where did most of your money go? To food, in general. I visited some nice restaurants. It was still no outrageous amount, though.

What did you get really, really, really excited about? The Vitra Campus in Weill am Rhein was quite spectacular. I am not sure it was a 3x ‘really’ level of excitement, though.

What song/album will always remind you of 2023? I discovered Philip Glass’ ‘Dance Pieces’ and listened to them extensively. It was played as part of ‘Age of Content’ (LA)HORDE’s performance at the Berliner Festspiele in August. It was marvellous.

Compared to this time last year, are you: Unsure how I was or felt last year. I think I was less exhausted in mid-December 2022, though. 2023 was dense. I did a lot.

What do you wish you’d done more of? More exercise. More breaks and holidays.

What do you wish you’d done less of? Even though not everything was fruitful, I think everything I’ve done was worth it.

How will you be spending Christmas? As it’s already after Christmas, I answer this retrospectively. I went to my sister’s family place and celebrated there – right after the pre-holiday ski trip.

Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? My mother, even though she thinks I could call her more often.

Did you fall in love in 2023? No need. All good and stable.

What was your favourite TV programme? ‘The Last of Us’ on HBO stood out. Great drama, themes, storytelling, actors. While not the greatest show, ‘Extrapolations’ on Apple TV+ will be on my mind for the years to come as it shows snapshots of human existence dealing with a changing climate between 2037 and 2070.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Such a strong word, no. But I do have much less respect for certain people. That includes several men in charge of driving digitalisation in the German public sector. Their performance is weak and deeply disappointing.

What was the best book(s) you read? At the end of the year, I started reading ‘Baustellen der Nation’ (‘Construction Sites of the Nation’ in English) – an analytical and progressive book outlining what needs work in Germany and how to do it. I like it goes deep and broad and covers problems and potential solutions, enriched with a lot of data and strong narratives.

What was your greatest musical discovery? I discovered Oskar Sala at an architecture exhibition in the Berlinische Galerie. I watched a documentary about the construction of the ICC building from the early 70s and waited until the end titles to see who composed the music. I have been listening to Oskar Sala’s music for various hours since then.

What did you want and get? The mentioned Vitsœ 606 shelf.

What did you want and not get? Some upgraded camera equipment. I did not prioritise it enough in my budget.

What were your favourite films of this year? It was neither ‘Oppenheimer’ nor ‘Barbie’ – the blockbusters and most discussed movies of the year. I missed a few films I still like to watch when they are streaming. ‘Decision to Leave’ by Park Chan-wook stood out for me. And Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ was powerful in its message, especially when watching the documentary with director Peter Sohn telling about his family’s immigration story that inspired the movie.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 41 in April. We wanted to take a canoe trip to the Spreewald, but the weather wasn’t great. So my parents came around, we went to the ‘Futurium’ exhibition about science and democracy and had cake afterwards. In the evening, I got invited for dinner at the Korean fine dining restaurant ‘CHOI’. That was a very pleasant and intimate food experience.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? More significant progress in driving user-centred design approaches in the German public sector. I didn’t get done what I wanted to get done. Too many actors are following their own agendas instead.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2023? Adding a bright colour to my navy blue – beyond the colourful socks. I got two new RÆBURN jumpers in 2023. I like the brand’s regenerative design approach and some of their designs.

What kept you sane? Focussing on the things that I can influence and that give me a sense of progress.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? No idea. Not my thing.

What political issue stirred you the most? So many. It’s hard to pick a single one. The wars, the inequality, the rise of the far-right. It is remarkable how terrible communication from politicians around policies to prevent climate breakdown is – globally. So, global inaction regarding climate change is the one that stirs me the most – as too many democratic politicians don’t even address it regularly.

Who did you miss? My grandmother, especially around Christmas.

Who was the best new person you met? I built a good relationship with Stephanie, our Chief Product Officer. I first met her in 2022 when I started at Digital Service, but we only had a few overlaps and encounters last year. That changed in spring. She is smart and driven, and we share views, values and attitudes.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2023. Take things step by step. There might still be countless steps missing from your goal, but you got a bit closer, at least.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year? I am bad with song lyrics – as I mostly listen to instrumental music. So, I need to pass on this one.

[darsynia]

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

okay idk whether my ask sent previously, bc i’ve been having some problems with sending asks, but i’m back with some questions!

so as you mentioned, lyrics. i write poetry, so i could possibly write something with some of your favourite lyrics? and then i could format it with that colour aesthetic you mentioned and stuff!

so yeah, questions

favourite lyrics?

and maybe, what’s your favourite outfit that taylor wore on tour?

have a great day!!

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

It sent! I responded but very late, and I post a lot every day (and forgot to tag it the way I said, I'm sorry!) so it was probably impossible to find. I knew it was there and still took 2 tries to find it in the past 24 hours of posts! I'll copy over what I posted and tag it the way I said this time I'm so sorry 💚

My very favorite lyrics are from Marjorie, particularly the bridge and the 'sayings' sorts of recursive phrases! Especially all your closets of backlogged dreams and how you left them all to me

A couple individual ones from other songs would be... Your love is a secret I'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep // I made you my temple, my mural, my sky // Gain the weight of you then lose it // writing letters addressed to the fire // nothing safe is worth the drive

The poetry is a lovely offer, I'd love to see what you'd come up with! Themes of doing the right things with the love that we have, passing along wisdom, appreciating the beauty of particular things (like the sea or deep green forests), those sorts of things!

Oooh, the outfit thing... So, I'm looking up the one I loved pre-Eras tour, but this one (I think from Arizona in March) was soooo gorgeous!

Pretty much the light end of all my favorite color stuff, too!

I want to say the Willow performance on MTV was my favorite, but I might be just as enamored with the moss roof as anything else? Like, if you want to use that whole moss roof firefly woods setting thing as a graphic anchor I am GAME. I was screaming pretty much the whole time I watched that!

For real, I'm bisexual and though blondes aren't my type anyway, I literally only just now noticed her dress has a slit in it after this has been out and I've watched the whole performance HOW many times?? I pasted in the image and went 'oh, huh! Leg!' That's how obsessed I am with the moss hahahaha.

I'd love to know what your favorite songs are from each album (and if you have a top winner for fave album or is it hard to pick?), if you're interested in sharing? One thing I find fascinating about Midnights in particular is that everyone has different faves from that one! Some of my faves are actually almost never mentioned, and that happens so rarely, I think it's great.

Thanks again! Sorry about the posting snafu 💚

[floridaestate]

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[thorntonkrell-blog-blog]

We forget 90% of what we read within 24 hours. Then over the next week we forget 90% of that. 10 years after reading Moby Dick, we might recall that it's about a one legged nut chasing a white whale while in the company of somebody we could call Ishmael and another guy named Starbuck.

I remember a little more than that based on the simple fact that I never read Moby Dick. I read the Cliff Notes for Moby Dick. Like almost all English majors, Cliff Notes were a very important part of my arsenal for effective collegiate time management. Nobody could possibly read all the books that were assigned to us. We chose our courses by how many books in the course were available in Cliff Note format.

Moby Dick showed up in 2 or 3 of my college classes and I was always happy when it did.

One of the great and ongoing benefits of Cliff notes is I became interested in summaries and reviews. Over the last few weeks, I've read hundreds of movie reviews and dozens of novel summaries.

Here's the beauty of such reading. If I'm reading a summary of a novel that I actually read (like War and Peace for example), much of what I had forgotten comes back to me as if I've come upon a buried treasure. The treasure was there from the first reading but it had been covered over by so much new information in my working memory that the book was reduced to a story about Russia and Napoleon.

Not only did the summary take me back to Pierre and Natasha and many others, it also refreshed my memory concerning the joy and challenge of reading the book in the first place. I remember how proud I was while I was making my way through the 1600 pages thinking with every page turn that soon the effort would be too much for me and I would lose track of the characters and give up on the book. When I finished reading the book, I came to the conclusion that I was a pretty good reader.

All of that came back to me as I read a summary of the book that contained about 1600 words....every word was the equivalent of a page.

Wow.

In terms of pages, the summary was maybe four pages in length. I hesitate to call the 1596 pages of the book filler because that takes away from the joy of reading but inevitable memory loss took care of the 1596 pages which left me surprised and refreshed by the summary.

Same thing with movie reviews. The main difference with movie reviews is that I can remember who I saw the movie with and what was going on in my life when I saw the movie but most of the actual details of any movie that I've seen only once have Gone With The Wind. A good review takes me back to the movie itself as well as the collaborative efforts that made the movie possible in the first place;

[moatpump4]

Don't forget your tablet and smartphone, and your laptop when you go camping with your kids.

It's something I've learned the hard-way. My mother was there to remind me to be prepared for any situation. I only told her my excitement at going on the first camping trip ever with my children and grandkids. And here she was, huffing and puffing with directions and tips for every aspect. My mom's conversation is okay with me, but listening to her lectures makes me uncomfortable. I attempted to complete the task faster than I should. That was a major mistake. youtube download We took our car along with us and drove to the camping site. I was hoping to recreate the rural feeling that I had with my dad back in the day so I decided to go to one of the most remote spots. It turned out that it was not in a location that had internet access. Our phones were out of range, so we were almost the only ones there, and none other campers. It's not a problem, I had hoped for an incredible vacation, three days out in nature, with nature.. But , we returned to our vehicles returning home within 24 hours of the camping trip had begun. https://snatch.media/download-ytmp4 What happened? What happened? I took a laptop along with some online games. The bag didn't even take my hands. I had a beautiful backdrop for the trees to watch small projectors I brought with me for nice big-screen movies. But no Internet to connect to Hulu and no Netflix and no Disney+.. What an absolute mess.. My children were a total pain to watch. They would check their email, get their texts, keep track of school, etc. I couldn't bear this anymore and we packed for the return trip. My children sound like little pigs enjoying delicious food once we were out of the internet-free zone. I really love my kids. It was embarrassing. They groaned and moaned as their phones began to beep and announce incoming messages via text. Since then, I've learned how to plan better and stay out of an internet-less zone with no roaming. When we took a trip on the boat to get to our destination, we needed our new best buddies. Two laptops and tablets were filled with Hulu offline video downloads, Netflix movies and show on one, and every music video I had on the second. I also was able to access the Windows app store, which includes both Hulu apps as well as Netflix apps. I have approximately 600 hours of content to watch, including all the South Park, Friends, and Will & Grace seasons. sv from yt

There are tons of videos kids will like. I downloaded music videos from Youtube and converted them into formats like mp3 and mp4 to watch and listen. This web application allows me to download videos directly to my computer. I can then play videos offline at any time I need electricity. I DVR a lot of movies, TV shows and online seminar. I save these videos in mp4 format to my laptop and play them later using VLC as well as KMP or any other player that supports 4K. 4k is another thing which I am adamant about. What have you seen? The video is crystal clear. It's simply stunning. I would highly recommend. Televisions with 4K picture support have an amazing software that improves and processes the image. So old video becomes so much better on the new TV, despite the fact it's not very good initially, it's just a an uninspiring blocky type of recording. However, it changes into a smooth and elegant contemporary video flow. Highly recommended for all girls and boys!

[pantyscarf6]

Do not forget your tablet or smartphones, along with your laptop when you go camping with your kids.

This is something I've learned through trial and error. My mother has been in my life all week long to encourage me and remind me to prepare for this, and to keep that in my mind. My excitement at taking my first camping trip, with my grandchildren and my kids was the only thing I shared with my mother. Now, she's everywhere, giving guidance and advice for every scenario that could arise. ytml3 I am not averse to my mom speaking. Not listening to her lectures is uncomfortable for me. I made a horrible mistake , and I realized the next day, or two, was the fault of me.

We set off in our vehicle and planned to drive it all up to the campsite. I wanted to recreate the same rural experience that my father had was, so I picked a remote location that turned out to be located in a huge no-service zone. The result was that our mobiles were no longer available and we were left completely isolated with no other campers. I don't blame you, I was expecting to have a great trip off working.. We spent three days out in the natural surroundings, in the midst of nature.. Within 24 hours, we were on our way to home. What happened? We had no Internet and no bars, and nothing. I had brought my laptop, along with a couple of games online. But it was impossible to take it out of the bags. I had a beautiful backdrop ready for the trees to see my projector, which I carried to create big-screen effects films. There was no Internet connection to Hulu, Netflix, or Disney+. They wanted to check their email, check their texts, stay on top of their school and so on. I got sick of it and packed the car for the return trip. My kids sound almost like little pigs enjoying delicious food after we came out of the wifi-less zone. My kids are amazing. However, it was embarrassing. They squealed and groaned as their phones started beeping to signal incoming text messages. Since then, my plans have been improved and I strive to avoid being stuck in an area with no internet. When we took a trip on the boat to get to our destination, we had to have our new best buddies. Two tablets and a laptop were loaded with Hulu video offline downloads, Netflix movies and show on one and every music video I had on another. I also used the Windows app store that has both Hulu apps as well as Netflix apps. I have about 600 hours of content to watch, including full Will & Grace, Friends and South Park seasons and added episodes. For children, I have collection of videos with humorous things. I downloaded music videos from Youtube and converted them to MP3 and mp4 formats to watch or listen. This web app allows me to download video directly to my personal computer. I then can watch them offline whenever I require electricity. I DVR a lot of TV shows as well as seminars, films, and movies online. The video files are stored in the format MP4 on my computer. Then, I open them later using VLC or KMP. 4k is another thing that I insist upon. Have you watched this? The video is clear and crystal clear. It's stunning. I would highly recommend. Televisions that support 4K images have excellent software within it that process the picture and improves it, upscaling it and makes it more appealing. Old video looks so much better on a TV. Even though it's not great, it is transformed into a sleek, modern video. Highly recommended for all ages!

[deascheck]

Midterm Surprise

Midterms

Ask: “How - how did you find me?”

Word Count: 1922

Warnings: smut

A/N: This is one of my first DeanxReader fics… would love feedback on whether or not I captured his personality! Though they aren't really an item... ?? @flamencodiva I hope it's everything you were wanting! I'm a novice to writing smut so I hope it's ok! *crosses fingers*

You sighed. You could not believe you’d made it through your three hour lecture class. Somehow, you’d stayed awake, though you could not say the same for everyone in the class. You looked around. About every fifth person was still asleep. You chuckled tiredly. I can’t blame them, now can I? I wanted to do the exact same thing. You picked up your laptop and notebook and stuffed them in your backpack.

Maybe I’ll go to my favorite diner to study for midterms, you thought. I deserve a fucking treat after getting through this goddamn class.

You walked to the parking lot and got into your 1967 Chevy Camaro. You loved your car. She was your pride and joy and you called her Baby. Not unlike a certain hero who’d saved you from a werewolf a couple years back. His car was similar to yours, a 1967 Chevy Impala. A real beauty. He called her Baby, too. You smiled at the memory. Damn, was Dean proud of that car. Dean had gone on his way, but not before the two of you had spent the night together making memories neither of you were likely to forget.

Shaking your head, you brought yourself back to the present. You drove across town to your favorite hole in the wall diner, a quaint little 24/7 diner where the workers all knew you by name.

You hauled your backpack onto your back and walked in.

“Hey, Joy! Hey, Dave! How’s it goin’ today?” you asked.

Joy and Dave smiled at you as you sat down at the counter. “It’s goin even better now that you’re here, Y/N! It’s been a couple weeks! Where ya been hiding?” replied Joy, the waitress who was standing by your seat.

‘Oh you know, it’s midterms comin’ up, and all. Gotta study so I can get those A’s!” you said.

Dave laughed. “Ohhh midterms. I don’t miss those,” he stated. “I know I’ve only been out of college for a couple years, but damn I don’t miss it!”

Joy nudged you. “Your usual?”

You grinned. “Yes m’am! I gotta be fully nourished to study for this stupid Psychology class. I thought I’d love Psychology,” you added. “But having it in a three hour lecture format just blows.”

Thirty minutes later, you were deeply engrossed in lecture notes and flashcards. You were so busy studying, you didn’t hear the bell ring as the door opened. You were looking at your flashcards in your lap, and all of a sudden noticed a pair of worn boots standing close to you. Offended, you brought your head up to tell the guy off for invading your space when your words stopped dead in your throat. A brown-haired, green-eyed, devilishly handsome man was smirking back at you.

“D-Dean! Oh my god! How- how did you find me?” You couldn’t believe your eyes.

“You’re assuming I was looking for you sweetheart,” he retorted. “Just kiddin’. Sammy and I are in town for a hunt. I dropped him off at the morgue and was looking for a bite to eat when I saw your Baby. I’d recognize that car anywhere. I figured I’d stop in here and give you a hard time,” he said with a glint in his eye.

“A hard time, eh?” you said. “I see. Well, I’m in the middle of studying for my Psychology midterm. Would you care to join me?”

Dean’s smirk turned into a smile when you didn’t turn him down, and he replied, “Darlin’, I’d love to.”

An hour later, Dean was quizzing you with your flashcards when his phone rang.

“Sammy, what’s up? …. Uh-huh. Ok. … Yeah, I’ll be right there. Gimme 10 minutes.”

Dean looked at you regretfully. “Well, sweetheart, I’ve gotta go pick up Sammy from the morgue. It was really nice seein’ you.” He looked at you with something almost like hope in his eyes.

You knew you couldn’t let this opportunity pass you up. “Umm… I don’t suppose you’d want to meet up later?” you asked.

Dean grinned broadly. “Here’s my number. Text me your address and we’ll figure somethin’ out,” he said. He grabbed your hand and wrote his number on the back of it. Winking at you, Dean stood up and headed for the door. “I’ll see you later, sweetheart,” he called over his shoulder.

As soon as he left, you texted him your address. “Meet me at 7pm,” your next text said.

You realized it was almost five and panicked. You had to clean up the apartment, shower, and find something suitable to wear for Dean when he arrived.

You drove home in record time and instantly went about putting laundry away, putting dishes in the dishwasher, and picking up school papers and tidying them. You then took a quick shower and chose your best pair of lingerie, hoping your night with Dean would end steamy. Over your dark red lace panties and bra, you put yoga pants and a loose t-shirt that hung over one shoulder. Just as you finished getting dressed, the doorbell rang.

You took a deep breath. This is it, you thought. Here goes nothing. You swung the door open to find Dean standing there about to knock. He smiled at you. “Hey there, sweetheart.”

“Hey stranger,” you managed back. Why was he so handsome? He was in a red shirt, with dark jeans and boots. He’d clearly run his hands through his hair in an attempt to smooth it.

Stepping back, you let him into your apartment. He took his shoes off and followed you to the kitchen. “Drink?” you asked.

“Sure, sweetheart,” he answered. “Thanks.”

You got out a bottle of whiskey and two whiskey glasses. You poured a couple fingers and handed him his drink. Drinking was not what was on your mind though, as you stared at him from under your lashes.

He shifted in his seat at the kitchen table and said, “If you keep looking at me like that, I can’t be held responsible for my actions.” His pupils were blown, lust filling his eyes.

You sidled to his lap and straddled him. “Maybe I don’t want you to be,” you said seductively.

With that, he pulled you flush against him and began to heatedly kiss you, his soft lips crushed against yours. As you kissed, you could feel a bulge building in his pants, and as your tongues fought for dominance in each other’s mouths, you brought one hand down from his hair and began to palm his erection through his jeans.

He moaned against your mouth and bucked his hips. You grinned into the kiss and suddenly Dean was slapping your ass. You jerked, surprised, but it turned you on, and the heat that was already pooling between your legs became more intense. You needed friction. You started grinding against him. The two of you were breathing raggedly, grinding against each other like teenagers.

All of a sudden, Dean growled. “Enough of this. Where is your room?” He stood up with you wrapping your legs around his waist and you murmured, “Down the hall to the right,” as you kissed his neck and sucked on his earlobe. Dean groaned as he walked. “You’re killin’ me, sweetheart.”

You could feel Dean’s erection and you wanted nothing more than to take it in your mouth and get him off. But Dean had other plans for you. His hands were grabbing your shirt, ripping it over your head and throwing it across the room. His face darkened with lust when he saw your red lace bra and he eagerly pulled your pants down to your ankles, where you stepped out of them. Dean stepped back for a minute, admiring you in your lingerie before closing the gap between you and smashing his lips against yours, his hands coming up behind you and unclasping your bra. It fell between the two of you and Dean brought one of his hands back around and started fondling your breast. He massaged it, and rolled the nipple between his fingers. It was hardened, showing how turned on you were.

You decided he had too many clothes on too, and began to work on the buttons on his shirt, letting out a grunt of frustration at how many buttons there were. Dean chuckled into the kiss and deftly finished unbuttoning his shirt. He shrugged it off and followed it with his black t-shirt. He shoved you against the edge of the bed so that you fell back onto it. You watched him hungrily as he undid his pants and brought them down with his boxers. His erection sprang free, and you could see the pre-cum leaking from his head already.

Dean crawled on top of you and began kissing your neck and trailing down between your breasts, down your stomach, and down your leg, ending at your ankle. You had no idea how sensitive your ankle was to kisses but you weren’t about to complain. Your chest heaved as you silently begged for him to relieve your need.

Dimly, in the background, you could hear Dean’s phone ringing. The two of you ignored it as Dean pulled your panties to one side, exposing your drenched pussy. He groaned at the sight of it. “So ready for me, sweetheart. All that for me,” he muttered as he brought his tongue sliding through your folds.

Your response was instantaneous. Your hips bucked, needing more of that friction. Dean grabbed your hips and held them down as he sucked on your clit, pleasure shooting through you. You took one of your hands and fisted Dean’s hair, gently pulling and attempting to guide him. Your other hand went to your breast as you massaged it, desperate to find your climax. Dean’s fingers found your hole, and he slipped two inside as he curled them against your walls, licking and sucking along your pussy. You were close. You could feel yourself tightening, and you moaned, “Dean, I’m gonna cum!”

“Cum for me, baby girl,” he said. “Cum.” He took your clit in his teeth and gently rolled it around in his mouth. With that, your back arched off the bed and you screamed his name, waves of pleasure coursing through you. Dean finger fucked you through your orgasm, your pussy clenching around his fingers over and over again. His tongue lapped your juices, sucking up every drop.

Dean’s phone rang again. And again. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered. He got up and answered it. “This had better be good, Sammy,” he said angrily. He went silent as he listened. “Fuck,” he said. “Ok, I’m coming.”

“Sorry, sweetheart. We’re gonna have to pick this up later,” he murmured as he leaned over to kiss you. You grabbed behind his ears with both hands and held him in place, your lips caressing his. “Don’t go,” you pleaded.

“I’m sorry,” he groaned with frustration. “Trust me, doll, I don’t want to go anymore than you want me to leave. But it’s an emergency. Another person just died. I’ve gotta go,” he explained.

You sighed and released him. “I’ll be waiting,” you said, and spread your legs wide so he could get a good look.

“FUCK, Y/N. You’re - you’re going to be the death of me,” he stuttered. He got dressed, his erection at full mast. He tucked it into his pants with a groan. “Goddammit Sam, always the cockblocker.”

“I’ll be back, sweetheart,” he said. And just like that, he was gone.

Taglist: @katelynw93

[blushie14]

Sleepy Muffin [Skephalo]

Bad needs more sleep nuff said >:v

It is now eleven o’clock at night. Darryl stares at his computer screen for a while until he sighs a bit in frustration. He's got a lot of work done, except for a video that he's been planning to upload today. 

Hours of editing was spent, but unfortunately Darryl has been unlucky lately. The editing software has been acting up and he would sometimes lose a little bit of progress. He was truly exhausted and it was getting harder to focus, but he wanted to get this video out asap. 

Maybe he should take another coffee break. 

He got up and walked out of his room. As he went into the kitchen, Zak was also there eating leftover take out and scrolling through twitter. "Oh hey! How's the video coming along?" 

Darryl grabbed a mug while waiting for the coffee to brew. "Ah, well… it's coming along. Hopefully, I won't lose my progress again though." 

Zak nodded but also had a look of slight concern. "Uhhh dude? Isn't that like your third cup of coffee?"

Darryl stayed silent holding the empty coffee mug, staring blankly at the wall.

"Darryl?... Darryl… Darryl!" 

"H-Huh? Sorry what? I-I blanked out for a moment!" He poured the coffee in his mug and started to drink.

"Jesus Christ, how tired are you?!" 

Darryl's mug was already almost empty as he put it down. "I'm really tired, but I'll go to sleep once I'm done. Promise." He yawned out.

Zak stared at him as he finished his coffee and walked back to his room. He has lived with Darryl for a while. He already knows that he pushes himself to work for hours on end until he gets it done. 

He also knows all too well that a sleep deprived Darryl has unpredictable results. Zak ponders for a moment before he eventually decided to go into Darryl's room. It is probably a good idea to check up on him. 

Zak opens the door and sees Darryl at his desk. He walked over and hugged Darryl from behind while resting his head on top of his head.

Darryl whined a little bit. "Geppyyy I'm still editing. What do you want?" 

Zak chuckled. "Just wanna watch you edit Darry. Something wrong with that?" 

"N-No I guess not.." Darryl blushed a bit before continuing to edit. 

Zak observed him while silently taking note of a few things. Darryl's eyes could barely stay up and he was barely making any progress editing this video. A little time passed by before Zak asked a question. "Soooo how many cups of coffee did you drink?" 

Darryl massaged his temples and yawned as he tried to think about his answer. "Uh… let's see…"

"Oh my god, it shouldn't take you this long to remember how many cups you drank."

"No! No, it's not that. I-It's just that.." Darryl nervously giggled, starting to feel loopy. "Are you talking about how much I had today or?" 

"...What do you mean?" Zak had a bad feeling in his stomach.

"I've been awake for like.. I think it's been 38 hours?"

"Wh- … Ah-..." Zak stood up in shock while Darryl laughed a little more and hid his face. 

"Oh no, I should've kept my mouth shut. Zak, just pretend you didn't hear that okay?"

"NO! Are you- you've been up more than 24 hours?! Are you crazy?!

"Nooo just leave me aloneeee don't worry about it!"

"Darryl I'm- I'm not leaving until you go to bed." 

"I am gonna go to bed, just give me five more minutes to edit this clip.."

"No, you need to go to bed! You've been replaying that snippet for like ten years and still didn't change anything."

Zak refused to let him stay up any longer than he had to. He kept insisting that he should go to bed now while Darryl was still being too stubborn to give in. Eventually, Darryl closed the editing software after saving his progress.

"Okay fine, I'll go to bed now. Are you happy you muffin head?" Darryl pouted, making Zak giggle a bit.

"Yes, now go to your bed."

"I will! Just say goodnight and go!"

"Ah ah ah! I said I'm not leaving until you go to bed."

Darryl groaned "Seriously?… Oh my goodness, fine!" He walked over and sat on his bed. "Better?" 

Zak smiled. "Yup! Now get some rest, okay?" Darryl nodded while Zak left his room. He closed the door and was about to walk away before he stopped himself.

He had a strong feeling in his stomach. He had a hunch that he needed to check if Darryl was actually going to bed. Lo and behold, the moment he opened the door, he saw him back in his chair staring at his monitor.

"Darryl, I swear to god." He facepalmed and laughed while the other let out a small scream before quickly standing up. 

"Wait, Zak it's not what it looks like! Look, I'm going to bed for real." He walked over, sitting on his bed again. "Okay, you can leave now." 

Zak rolled his eyes before sitting right next to him. "Nah, I think I'll stay right here." He smiled while Darryl started to protest.

"Wait you're not leaving? No, come on I promised I'd go to bed."

Zak crossed his arms. "I know, but you didn't promise you would go to sleep. So I'll just wait here until you fall asleep." He smirked, not falling for this again. 

Darryl went quiet for a moment. "...Nooo why would you do that, you're being ridiculous." 

Zak giggled, and the other being loopy couldn't help but giggle along. "You and I both know that the minute I walk out that door, you're just going to go back to your computer desk!"

"Nooooo! I wouldn't! Skeppy, leave my roooooom!" 

"Maybe, and this is just a thought, just maybe I'll leave once you go to sleep." 

"You go to sleep, you dunderhead!" 

"No! You first!" 

They bickered back and forth for a few more minutes until Zak had an idea to make up a "deal" for the both of them. 

"Okay, okay look. How about this. Let's say if I fall asleep before you do, you can get back on your computer and do whatever you want for as long as you want. And I'll never bother you about sleeping ever again."

Darryl's eyes lit up for a bit. "Wait really? So I don't have to sleep right now? And I can finish editing my video."

"That is only if you can stay up longer than me." He chuckled. There was no way he's going to fall asleep before he does.

"Hmm… you sure you wanna do this?" Darryl was confident he could stay up a little longer. He's made it this long, there's no way he was gonna fall asleep now.

"I mean, either way there's no way I'd be able to stop you if I fell asleep before you do. So yeah."

"Okay then, deal!" Darryl laughed. "You made a huge mistake, you muffin. I've had a few cups of coffee and I'm going to stay up so that I can finally finish editing!"

Zak giggled, "Whatever you say Darry. Whatever you say." 

Time went by as Darryl rambled on about random topics as a way to keep himself awake. Darryl was yawning every now and then while Zak stayed silent, wide awake.

"Dude, stop yawning. You're going to make me tired."

Darryl let out a devious laugh. "Hmmm maybe this is my plan all along Zak!" 

Zak covered his mouth with his sleeves as he had a mini giggle fit. 

More time went by and Darryl resorted to making up a story in song format. 

"🎶 Ohhhh there once was a little ducky boy, who was planning something for his ducklings. He wanted to make his little ducklings happy cuz he loves each and every single one! Buuuut then his own ducky, who he loves very much, wanted to be a big meanie pants. He forced the little ducky to stop and nowww, the little ducky is sad! 🎶"

Zak couldn't help but laugh at how adorable that was. He decided to go along with the analogies. 

"The ducky loves his little ducky too, which is why the ducky wants his one and only to take a break." He cupped Darryl's red face in his hands. "The ducklings will be patient and understand that the little ducky is tired." 

Darryl let out a flustered whine. "But I promised them a new videoooo!" Zak only sighed in response.

Even MORE time goes by. Darryl was laying on Zak's shoulder, struggling to keep his eyes open. Zak was also a little tired, but he was definitely wide awake compared to Darryl. 

"Hey… Zak? Have you- have you ever noticed that the word 'fridge' has the letter 'd' in it, yet the word refrigerator doesn't have a 'd' in it?" 

At that moment, Zak wheezed and lost it at this point, covering his face as he laughed head off. Darryl was giggling as he continued to talk.

"Whahat? It doesn't mahake any sehehense!" 

"BAHAHAD PLEHEAHEASE GO TO SLEHEEHEEP!" 

"Nooooooo!" 

It took a while, but Zak finally calmed down. He put one arm around Darryl and gently started playing with his hair, just because he felt like it. 

Darryl had his eyes shut for a moment before jolting awake again. "Zak noo…. quit making me tired, you.. you muffin…"

Zak smiled and wrapped both his arms around him, snuggling against him now, still playing with his hair. 

Darryl could feel himself drifting to sleep. "Gep..py..no.." Zak could barely hear him mutter his words. Despite his mumbling protests, Darryl started to hug Zak on instinct.

"You were saying Darryl?" Zak giggled as he heard him mumbling more words. Darryl's mumbling started to get slower and slower, until it eventually came to a stop.

"Are youuu finally asleep?" Zak heard nothing in response. He lightly gasped when he heard light snoring. 

"Awww.." He giggled as he hugged him a little tighter. Zak didn't want to leave his side. "It took you long enough.." He slowly closes his eyes.

"Good night, I love you.." 

[End] 

[sasa-gay-yo]

Just Us (Chapter Two: Expedition)

← Chapter One

A Month Later 

The newspaper was open on the counter as I handed a customer a croissant and their overly-sweetened coffee. I was flipping through the pages, trying to find anything about the Scout’s latest expedition outside of the walls and if they had posted a casualties list. 

“Eva? Miss. Eva? Eva?!” I looked up again and noticed the kids trying to pull themselves taller than the counter to get my attention. How long were they asking for me? 

“Elias! June! What can I get for you today?” They put their spare change on the counter and counted it out. Not enough to buy a single cup of coffee combined. 

“What can we get for this much, Miss. Eva?” I smiled down at them again and pointed to the muffins I had cooling on the table. Blueberry was their favorite.

“If you both clean off the tables for me, by the time you’re done the muffins will be cool enough.” They nodded furiously and I handed them two rags. They both went off and divided the work. June was taller so she would try and wipe down the tables because she could reach the center, and Elias would reach the empty cups and plates and put them into the dish bin. Some of the old people looked at their running and saw it as annoying, but I just stared at them with a smile, reminding me of when I was a kid in this café. Having no concept of money, I would do chores and Mr. Flynn would just give me enough money to get a single piece of candy from the shop down the street. My labor definitely outweighed the money I received for it, but I was just happy getting candy. 

I turned my back on the kids, taking the newspaper with me, leaning on the glass case. It was a Saturday morning, so everyone had the luxury of sleeping in and not going to work but me. The bakery has to be open almost 24/7 so I can break even. Scanning the pages, I finally found what I was looking for. On the last page was only one paragraph describing the maneuver that the Scouts had done this past month taken from an interview from Commander Erwin. Something about implementing long-distance formations. Erwin’s speaking and various prints on the newspaper had shown him on opposite end of the coin of his captain. He seemed bright, personality and looks wise, and almost like a knight from fairytales. If Erwin was bright, then Levi was dark; maybe only in the form of rumors that I had yet to prove true.

Glancing over at the kids’ process, I found myself looking at the spot he sat. It was empty, and even if a group had sat there, it seemed empty. Their presence wasn’t as big as his. I laughed, big presence, little body. Maybe he’s compensating. 

It’s been a little over a month since he had been back to the café. That usually marked that the Scout had died, but I had a weird string of faith for him. If he’s Humanity’s Strongest, there’s no way an expedition would end him. Also, the thought of it being a freak visit made me a bit sad, but if I only met him once, it would be better than meeting him many times and then never again. 

“Miss. Eva, we’re done!” I handed the two muffins and their smiles were big enough to take me out of my thoughts completely.

“Here you go Miss. Eva.” June handed me the coins and I shook my head. 

“You paid for the muffins by cleaning. Go buy some candy down the street. If you tell him that Eva sent you, he might give you a free piece.” Elias’s, the younger, eye’s widened at the chance of free candy, but June seemed a bit reserved. She looked down at the floor and had one foot moving around on tiptoe. She wanted to ask me something. Was she too embarrassed to ask it in front of her little brother? 

“Eli, can you go buy me a lollipop? I want to sit here and eat my muffin.” He didn’t care about anything other than the candy he was going to get, so he nodded and took off. I watched as he ran through the small crowd on the street. 

“Now, what do you want to ask me June?” Her face went red and she was still staring at the floor. 

“How...How do you know you like a boy?” I almost choked on air and made sure I heard her right. She had a mother, but she comes and asks the baker that gives her free food. I should take it as a complement and I should tell her not to worry about boys until she was older. These kids are getting more and more mature than I was at eleven. 

“Why are you asking me that?” She put the muffin on the counter. 

“W-Well I know a lot of boys like you! So, you have to know how!” She got confident with her last sentence, but it was the first one that shocked me. Where were these men? She might just be exaggerating to get her point across.

“I didn’t know that a lot of boys liked me, June. I just stay in this building almost all day. What boys?” 

“Um… I was told not to tell you.” I narrowed my eyes at her and thought of a way to get it out of her.

“If I tell you how to know you like a boy, you have to tell me what boys like me. Your mother is one of the people telling me I should get married soon. You could help me with that.” She nodded furiously and easily betrayed whoever the man was. 

“When you like a boy… hm. I’ve only ever liked a few boys, June. I guess it starts with you wanting to talk to them a lot. You hope that whenever you’re in the same room as them, they come and talk to you. When you’re at school do you want this boy to come over to your desk?”

“Yes, but he only goes to his other friend’s desks.” She huffed and rested her chin on the counter. Cute. I reached over and ruffled her hair.

“Sometimes you get this feeling in your stomach, like butterflies. You get really nervous and can’t talk that well to him. You might just stare a lot because you’re too afraid to say anything that might sound stupid.” She sat up again, a more determined look on her face. 

“So then how do I know he likes me?” I wiped the spot where her chin was on the table. My hands were definitely in need of some lotion or balm. It wasn’t even winter yet and they were still cracking over the amount I used them.  

“It’s hard to tell with boys. Sometimes they’ll be mean to you and it still means they like you. Sometimes they won’t talk to you at all, but they’ll just stare at you too. Some boys will also just talk and talk to you about anything. Boys your age are pretty dumb. Boys are dumb in general, actually. It doesn’t get better with age.” She nodded in agreement and I ruffled her hair a little bit more, seeing that Elias was already running back with a small bag. 

“So that’s how I know Jonas likes you. Because he doesn’t stop talking to you.” My eyes widened a little bit as something I was suspicious of being confirmed. 

“Jonas said that?” She nodded. 

“He says he thinks you’re the prettiest girl in Trost and probably of all the districts.” She covered her mouth like it was going to help she spilled her confidant’s secret. 

“Well isn’t that sweet of him.” Elias almost fell opening the door to come back in. Once he stopped he was breathing hard and put the bag of candy on the counter. 

“Guess who I saw coming this way, Eva!” His words barely came out through his hard breathing and coughing. I turned around to get him a glass of water.

“I don’t know, Elias. With you’re yelling it’s gotta be someone cool.” 

“You have to guess, Eva!” 

“Oh, I don’t know! A tit-” My words stopped when I turned back around to give Elias water. It was a sudden return and I didn’t know how to react to it. However, it made sense. I saw the people gather a few days ago to welcome them back.

“Captain.” He was wearing his uniform still, the hood of his cape making him even darker, but I was glad he took it off when meeting my eyes. June and Elias moved aside, leaving their things on the counter. 

“One cup of black tea, please.” I smiled a bit and nodded as he took the coins from his pocket. Today, I wouldn’t make a suggestion. It seemed like he was running on two hours of sleep and needed something. I would have suggested coffee, but I didn’t think he’d accept it. 

He went to sit in the same spot and something inside of me lit up. It wasn’t empty anymore. Now that he had come a second time, he would have to start coming back. It wasn’t a fluke.

“Bye, Miss. Eva!” June pulled Elias out of the café, no doubt to go and spy on Captain Levi from a different angle. I looked up at the clock on the wall to see if he had returned at the same time. It was closer to one o’clock, meaning if he stayed the same length of time, he’d be here at closing. Something about that made me excited. 

The café filled with a total of 4 people felt so alive now that he was in it. Maybe it was because he had broken the perpetual boredom inside of me. It could also be because his actions proved that it wasn’t a freak accident leading him here. The Captain had to be intelligent and calculating, so the fact that he chose here was ever more intriguing. 

I poured the tiny bowl of honey again and walked over to his table. With the small number of people here, I might also have a better chance of having a conversation.

“One black tea for the Captain.” 

“Thank you.” It was short, but not a grunt this time. Progress was being made. I didn’t stand and stare this time but went back to fake reading the newspaper. The news that I wanted showed up at my doorstep, so I just looked at the riddles section. 

I wonder how the last expedition went for him. Did he kill more titans? I mean that probably is a given for him. What is it like looking at a titan up close? I had never seen a titan in person, only in drawings, but I was still curious. I put the newspaper down, pretending to go do something, and locked eyes with him right away. He was staring at me. Should I play with him to get him to talk? No. I just smiled and turned to go do some fake task. Apparently, wiping the counter that June and Elias cleaned seemed to be that task. 

The tables! I grabbed the bucket on the floor and a rag that Elias used. They may have done it already, but if it gave me some reason to talk to Captain, then I guess the tables have to deal with being extra clean... and my hands would have to deal with being extra dry.

“Oi.” It was soft and I looked up from the 5th table. I pointed to myself and he nodded, “This table needs to be wiped again. Whoever did it before did a bad job.” I narrowed my eyes and thought of Elias as he ran around cleaning. He just insulted my kid. 

“It looks clean to me,” I retorted sounding a bit childish. I had a kid’s legacy to protect. He wiped a finger on the wood and held it up to me. His finger had nothing on it. Never knew someone who could kill titans would also be a clean freak. Isn’t that an oxymoron? 

“It’s dirty. I might even report you to the police for keeping food in this environment.” I huffed and put the bucket on the floor, noticing that a few drops had hit his boots. I’m sure he didn’t leave that unnoticed either, tsk, the clean freak. He might make me buy him new ones. 

I leaned over and cleaned the table while he lifted his cup and saucer up. It was then I realized how close he was to me and how much he was staring. This time he wouldn’t glance away every time I looked back, almost like he was inspecting my cleaning. 

“There you go, Captain.” 

“It’s Levi. Just Levi. You’re not my subordinate.” Huh, was this him trying to be nice and sociable? I’ll take it. 

“And it’s Evlynn Flynn. I know unfortunate naming, but I didn’t pick it. Everyone calls me Eva. Just Eva.” I mimicked him and he seemed to not care about the joke I just made. Guess he wouldn’t like the riddle section of the paper. 

“What were you reading about?” I put the rag back into the bucket like I was going to move onto the next table. Who was I kidding? 

“Huh?” 

“The newspaper. What were you reading?” Oh. Now, if I told him that would be embarrassing. Isn’t this the second time that this has happened? 

“Just everything. I read about your last expedition. The papers seem to not deem it important. They gave your commander just one paragraph.” He set his cup down. He was only half way done... this soon?

“Well, at least they published something this time. Usually, we just get nasty looks.” I laughed a bit, and his expression told me that that wasn’t a joke. 

“I think it’s the last few expeditions you’ve had. You’ve come back with less and less dead. It seems so… calm outside the walls. Not many titans to fight. Maybe they’re getting ready to hibernate for the winter.” He nodded and seemed like he wasn’t going to continue the conversation. A man of few words. One rumor: true. 

Assuming he was done talking to me, I turned to fake wash the other tables.

“Why are you interested in the Scouts? Not a lot of people are.” 

“Oh, well, I have to have something to give me hope, right?” I looked at the chair behind me that was very much open. No, I wouldn’t sit today. Give him something to hope for too.

“Hope? From the Scouts?” 

“Yeah. If anyone is going to save us from the titans, it has to be the ones actively killing them, right? The Garrison, they’re the ones who give me no hope. They come in on duty and drink my coffee supplies down the drain. I have to go to the capital to get those.” He finished his cup of tea and I looked up to the clock. It had only been an hour. 

“Do you also get your tea from the capital?” I nodded and went to clean the table closest to him. It made him turn to me and that’s when I realized he did want to talk. Like actually talk. 

“Sometimes it’s the marketplace by the gates. Other times it’s the one by Mitras. The two you drank were specialty from some dealer in the underground who deals in Mitras. I think he scammed me for them, but if you’re enjoying them, then I guess it’s worth it.” His face had a look of recognition. 

“That’s why I remember this taste. I’ve had these teas before.” Rumor number two confirmed. Levi was from the underground. 

“You were born in the underground.” It wasn’t a question and he nodded, “Me too.” I don’t know what made me spill such a big part of my life to him, maybe the fact that we were the same, but I didn’t feel any regret like I did when I told Jonas the first time. He understood what it meant to be from there.

After that, it was a comfortable silence as I went on fake cleaning. We had reached a point of similarity and that was enough. I tended to customers and gave him a second cup of tea when he asked. For the amount of time he stayed, it was probably their few days off after an expedition. I wonder when he’d have to go back to the HQ from Trost. Do they have houses inside Trost? I know some of the older Scouts relocate their families here to be closer, but the chance of Levi having family was low. Those would be questions for another visit. 

“Have a good dinner, Mrs. Markas!” She waved from the door as she took her bag of bread. I looked at the clock again. It would be time to get ready to close soon. Levi was still in his chair, looking out at the dinnertime rush. I sadden a bit at our future parting when I kicked him out. I might just let him sit until I have to go upstairs to sleep. 

The last few customers came through and I looked at the small amount of bread left. No one was going to come in anymore. Time to close. 

I grabbed my broom and went to open the door so I could sweep dirt outside. 

“Captain?” I leaned over so I could see if he reacted to me calling him. What I saw made my eyes widen in surprise. His eyes were closed, his head tilted a little back, and he was breathing heavily. Was he… sleeping? I thought he stopped talking to me because he didn’t have anything to say. How long was he sleeping? 

I stopped sweeping to give him a good look in the setting sun. The dark circles were still there, but his face had completely softened. His hair was swept back revealing all of his face. Even with his sharp features, when he was sleeping, something had changed. He looked peaceful. I decided not to ruin precious sleep for him, remembering the state he walked in with, and I cleaned around him. Even when I took his cup, he didn’t flinch or wake up. Good, he needed sleep. I was also a little happy he decided to do it in my café. 

I closed the windows and turned the lamps up a bit so I could still see what I was doing. Should I wake him up now? It’s getting late and he’d have to ride back to the HQ in the dark. He might even get in trouble for being out so late. Groaning, I walked over to shake him. Putting a hand on his shoulder, I shook him softly. 

“Levi? Levi? Captain Levi?” With the last one, his eyes shot open and his hand slammed on the table. I jumped away from him. Good thing I had moved the teacup a few minutes ago. Within seconds of him waking up, the hardness was back again and it was like he never took a nap. 

“What time is it?” He looked up at me and probably was confused that I held my heart in my hand. He had scared me waking up so violently. 

“It’s almost five at night. I thought you might need to head back to HQ.” He stood up almost knocking the chair over. Huh, he was actually a few centimeters taller than me. 

“Um, yes, I… I need to head back. I have paperwork to fill out.” I nodded and settled myself back to normal, taking a step to give him a free path to the door. 

“Have a good night, Levi. I hope your next expedition goes well.” He nodded and grunted once. 

“Goodnight...Eva.” 

                                                                                                   Chapter Three →

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