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David
Travelling in order to complete an article, first stop (change of plan) is Sudan, followed by France a few weeks later, hopefully followed by a nice respite in London. Peripherals Voice
By the way, dont be weirded out by the blogger name or whatever it is, it is simply a continuation of a trend started by my email (mildlymagneticvoice@yahoo.com)-which derived from me being the vocalist for Mildly Magnetic. Now, I am the frontman for a band called Peripheral Black Thoughts, a former hip-hop and reggae band that is now delving into Jazz, R&B and SOul...thanks to my voice (so they say anyways). So yeah...theres enough explanation for something so trivial and miniscule, is there not? So, enjoy the blog.
Travel Blog Posts
A belated notification of a profound state of love for being home.
Published: July 6th 2006North America » United States » Virginia » Alexandria
July 6th 2006
Please forgive the title...sometimes my characteristic verbosity and penchant for superfluous writing gets the better of me. Well, I made it home, obviously. Coming home wasnt everything I anticipated in some ways, but in some ways it exceeded my expectations. Overall and completely...its definitely good to be home. Its funny though, that my parents left to go out of town 2 days after I got back though. They had a long planned trip to Massachusetts, and I chose not to go in favor of working. I have a temporary paid-internship at Classical Movements Inc, essentially a travel agency, but for huge organizations like the National Symphony Orch. and the Boston Philarmonic and such. It is tour season, so it is really hectic at the office, but I like it. I'll also be getting my security clearance ... read more
June 29th 2006
Well, the thought that we leave for the airport in one hour or so left me with the realization that this'd be my last opportunity to write one of these wonderful blogs on Sudanese soil...erego...this. In synopsis, I: 1) came here to get enough research done to make up the contents of half of my article, something I accomplished. 2) got hooked on nasty black coffee, and pine for Starbucks and/or Cosi 3) Met some really awesome people that I had the priv of working with for these past 9 days. 4 of whom I'll be working with again later on this summer when I go to Paris and the Parisian suburbs. 4) Met a head of state. 5) Saw a great many things. 6) Have the consolation of at least getting a nice fat check ... read more
June 29th 2006
Its about 5:30am here (probably 6pm-ish for you east coast folks), and among the many things that I have done/prepared for tonight so far, the blog thing hasnt been one of them. Wednesday took us into two once-villages in southern Darfur, and that is about the only description I can really offer. It now happens to be Thursday here, which is the magic day...in the sense that I can finally leave. It'll be nice to be home, to say the least. I'll be getting a job at FinCEN (a contracting company's division in the Dept. of Treasury). I got hooked up by my uncle with the job, so its good pay, good people, and lunches with the head of the Dept. of Treasury (his roommate in college and best friend), so it should be pretty cool, ... read more
June 28th 2006
Well, this one is simply to let everyone know that I'm alright. I couldnt do anything about the fact that I ended up pulling an all-nighter. I just couldnt sleep I guess. I'll just load up on the caff. gum if I end up getting tired, but I dont think I will. I just cant stop thinking about stuff from yesterday long enough for me to try and even begin to get tired. I guess I know now why alot of people in my family didnt want me to do this. I know that I am going to have to talk about yesterday at least once when I get back home, and I dont want to think about what that is going to be like. In retrospect, I think I wouldve rather stayed at home and ... read more
June 27th 2006
Well, its probably around 9 pm for you east coast folks, but its around 6am for me here. I was extremely suprised this morning when I was blasted out of bed by the local mosque's minaret-mounted imam with a loudspeaker....I also heard the sounds of rain. It is raining, and it is raining very hard at that! For most that sounds quite trivial, and its not like the Sudan is totally arid (as it is partially within the Sahel region as oppossed to being totally Sahara-bound), but it is the first time it has rained since I have been here, and the pita-guy outside on the covered sidewalk of sorts said its the first time that its rained in a few months. It'll be nice for it to be a little bit cooler, but then it'll ... read more
a breath of fresh air and (for once) an unremarkable day
Published: June 27th 2006Africa » Sudan » North » KhartoumJune 27th 2006
Well, I must say that today has been great actually. I conducted one interview with a woman in a hospital ward in Southern Darfur province to get her story that other people were getting as well, and then we just headed back to Khartoum and got in around late evening here. I found a guy to get a digital camera from, but he was asking for more money than I have left for this trip, in cash nontheless, so I said screw that, I have plenty of film...it'll make for a nice binder full of pictures when I get back and actually have the time to put something like that together. Other than that, today was totally chill, and we've all just been hanging out ever since. I caught up on some sleep with an evening ... read more
June 26th 2006
Well, true to his word, Prof. Taha (Minister of the Interior) got me a lunch and long sitdown with the man himself, Omar al-Bashir, the President of the Sudan!! He is a very imposing man, its not that he is huge and physically intimidating, he just had this imposing air about him, but one that I suspect that all dictators (admitted or otherwise) probably have. He (like Prof. Taha) suprised me, and he was incredibly intelligent, expounding about how the world and UN has the wrong perception on what is going on in the Sudan. I would beg to differ from what I have seen already, but I was more than smart enough to not let my own thoughts be known. The funny thing was, we actually didnt talk about domestic and world affairs for all ... read more
June 24th 2006
Well, I stayed in bed for most of today and caugt up on some sleep. When I woke up around 2pm here, I went downstairs to the bar/restaurant and chilled with Nigel, Paulos, and Juan, who had all stayed in for the day, since I ussually go with them and conduct the interviews while Nigel handles all things camera related. Once we started watching the TV in there, I was really glad I did. One French and one Czech journalist were stopped, ambushed, and killed yesterday out in Darfur. We had to watch this on Al-Jazeera (International Arab TV station), so it a bit upsetting to say the least, b/c it almost seemed like they were subliminally glorifying those wretches who were beating those guys bodies. I actually met the Frenchman when I first got here ... read more
June 23rd 2006
Well...its a little after 4am here, probably around 9pm for you east coast folks, or my special lady on the west coast of SA. I cant sleep, my side..and pretty much my whole body hurts, and the painkillers that they gave me at the hospital wore off a long time ago...so I am just kinda stuck. The reason for the title comes from the utter weirdness (severe and characteristic understatement) that seems to pervade here. Nikolai and Bronskpy (two of the Russians) went out to breakfast at a cafe today (well yesterday, technically). I was eating a breakfast pita and fresh fruit when Bronskpy and I both saw two Arab men dragging a black woman into an alleyway. Since I found out about this trip, I have been telling myself that I had to just do ... read more
June 21st 2006
Well, today was an early morning being blasted out of bed to Muslim prayers on a loudspeaker from (I presume) the local Mosque. Needless to say, given my lack of sleep the night before...I was quite bitter. After a breakfast of crummy eggs and this bread akin to pita-bread, most of us set out for the West (the Darfur region therein). I got alot done during the day actually. I vox-recorded 14 interviews (w/ an interpreter of course, as I dont speak any Arabic, yet anyways..), and we got to film another 4 short ones right around the time that we left. We drove East after we ate dinner (rice and cooked fish, courtesy of Raymond {a freindly sec. guy from Kentucky}), and had planned on stopping in this town and staying in this one town ... read more
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