As you know if you've read previous posts, I'm at a cartoon exhibition in Algiers. "2eme Festival Bande Dessinee" in French, which is what's spoken here. I'm posting from an iPhone so I am not going to list all the attending cartoonists names... But meeting cartoonists from all over the African continent is amazing. And from Europe, Canada, the Middle East as well.
You can't get more different from Kansas than Algeria. The air smells like jasmine and oranges at night... I hear the call to prayer from the minorets five times a day...my cartoonist friend from Yemen has offered to wake me up at 4am for the first call.
Today we were treated to a tour of an old Roman city called Tipaza. It is on the edge of the meditteranean... Imagine 30 or so cartoonists being expected to listen to the tour guide when all they wanted to do was take pictures of each other against the backdrop of the ruins and the sea.
In the middle of all this I had a break and checked my email. Anne from New Jersey was on her commute to NY, reading the comics. She read that my character Gramma has been invited to join a Habitat for Humanity Intl Build in Thailand. The real me is going next month as well. Anne wrote to say that she will be on the same build in Thailand, and that she Is looking forward to meeting me there.
So... I am in Algiers reading an email from a fan in NJ who is going to be in Thailand on a Habitat build when I'm there next month...
The world is a wondrous place.
Meanwhile, the exhibition here in Algiers is wonderful, our hosts are wonderful, the cartoonists are incredible... And it's only just begun!
After that long ramble... Goodnight!
Hi Jan,
I was listening to you at the opening of the “Walk for Life” benefit walk here in Eugene and was left curious about your Africa trip—luckily, I easily found your website, and this blog part of it. Thanks for sharing your Africa adventure! Love the Stone Soup comics!
P.S. You can see a couple of the pictures of the “Walk for Life” at my flickr site (the link is in my TypePad profile.)
Posted by: europeanasian | October 19, 2009 at 08:53 AM