I am Markus Fleisch

By guest writer Jill McKay

I've been meaning to write a proper blog post for approximately eleven months, but it's so hard. The last time I sat down to write, I was distracted by some shiny tin foil I saw hanging from a tree. And the time before that, I got really hungry and got up to make some popcorn and when I sat back down my fingers were too greasy to type. And the time before that, I couldn't think of anything to write so I went and got a beer instead and one beer turned into three and when I got back I really had to pee and couldn't remember what it was I'd been doing. So that's why I haven't written.

Here's what's up with me. I got back from San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. I had a really nice time at Patrick and Connie's wedding. I really enjoyed the beer part. I also liked the food part. It was fun speaking German again, despite all the “ouis” and “d'accords” that snuck into my speech. Jill wanted to speak to my Austrian relatives herself, so she'd ask me, “Markus, how do I say 'I like your sweater'?” and I'd tell her “Ich bin ein Affe” and she'd say “I am a monkey” in German and everyone would laugh and she'd look very pleased with herself, old trilingual Jill.

It's our last month in Burkina, so I've been doing all of my favorite things, including buying souvenirs for people and haggling the seller down from the nassara price, having my clothes butchered by tailors who don't know how to use measuring tape, and eating all the delicious goat meat I can shove in my mouth and drinking all the tasteless Burkinabé lagers I can chug. I don't know if I can handle America, where everything costs the nassara price no matter how much you try to haggle and the meat comes from some giant animal called a “cow” and the beer comes in strange, dark colors. Jill assures me I'll be ok, but I'm not so sure.

Well, that's all the writing I can muster for now. Hope you've enjoyed it!

PS-I love Jill and hereby promise to make her all the chocolate chip cookies she wants whenever she wants when we get back to America.