I love your story of Samba

I'm amazed by how friendly some people still are in San Francisco. Oddly, I find certain cab drivers and the older, non-stereotypical rideshare drivers to be the chattiest. This is an unexpected niche; MUNI riders and walkers aren't very friendly, but private car people are. Just a thought.

Taranga? Prisoner? Man I would be so late to everything in Senegal. I do poorly enough here, and that's not because I'm some hybrid.

Samba is the cultural ambassador to the Baobab Center. In his late forties, he lives in his family's compound in Dakar "we transported the village to the city". He is the afternoon tea maker for the office, an essential job; if there were one job of a cultural ambassador this would be it. He serves teas number one, two and three, spaced out over a few hours. He brings each glass to you on a plastic frisbee turned upside down, and always comes back to retrieve the glass. No matter where you're sitting, he'll find you. His outfits always match. Each day he comes to show you his outfit, and asks, would you like one too? He can get it for you no problem, what is your size? When Senegal played in the African National cup, he stripped down to his shorts and undershirt in the lecture room to put on his Senegal jersey and shorts. He jogged laps around the table, laughing. He invited me to lunch when I first arrived, and I stayed, a prisoner of taranga, for lunch and dinner, at 6pm. I'm not too sure what a cultural ambassador should do, but I think he does it perfectly.

Reality bends

In an interview with the municipal councilman of Patte D'Oie on land rights for urban agriculture in the municipality. On word choice:"I like to use the word 'primitif (primitive)' instead of traditional or native because the root is the word 'premier (first)". Then on post independence reforms: "At midnight of 17 June 1964, all the land that was not registered to the state became national domain. 80% + of the land in Senegal was not registered. This all became the land of the state. So, from this moment, all primative property rights «disappeared». But actually, this didn’t disappear at all. Why? In 1964 this law was voted. But no administrative or legal or social framework was set up to enforce or apply this. The law should be applied. But it wasn’t."

Shoes again

The second pair of shoes I bought at the flea market were running shoes. Before that, I was wearing my hiking boot heavy walking shoes to go running. In my running shoes I feel so light, three laps is a whole new story. The elimination of a pound or two, and everything is different. Can you think of a context in which you could eliminate a weight (literal or not) for the better?

Shoes and cows

Visited the Saturday flea market and discovered the heaping pile of two dollar shoes. I bought a pair of leather Aerosole sandals, the kind I had in first grade. I thought about their travels, from a design board in America to a factory somewhere in Asia most likely, to someone's feet in Europe or America, to me, an unlikely client in Senegal. Two dollars? They once were the skin on a cow, and have traveled thousands of miles around the world. Two dollars. For these shoes I'd become an economist.

Evening With My Mom

A walk over windy Potrero Hill; purchasing a biography of U.S. Grant and learning that the S. wasn't part of his given name, and rather was given to him as a cadet at West Point; sitting in a parklet and watching the street trees blow; recommending the French onion soup to a dapper couple on an early Valentine's date; a superb burger; a roquefort joke; carrying on in a familiar place.

Report Draft

The conceptual grading plan has been designed to maximize the extent of floodplain planting areas with a shallow depth to groundwater in order to support the establishment of willow and cottonwood riparian forest revegetation areas. Areas where the depth to groundwater is anticipated to be greater will be targeted for revegetation with mixed riparian forest that contains more drought tolerant species such as coast live oak, buckeye, box elder, and elderberry, and the highest elevation portions of the site may be revegetated with coastal scrub and grassland habitat. The braided distributary channels across the floodplain are primarily designed to convey flood flows. These areas, designated as Maintained Flow Conveyance Areas (MFCAs), will be revegetated to grassland habitat and maintained to prevent the establishment of woody vegetation that may impede flood conveyance. The farm field will be cover cropped until agricultural operations begin and is the only portion of the site that will be not be revegetated to native riparian habitat.