11

9.2.07

Trouble raging in the Congo. In Pakistan, the opposition party collects votes. Remember, said Ardith, veils are a symbol of faith. They do not immediately denote oppression.

Styrofoam and wrappers in the manholes, almost all of which are missing their covers. One entrance to the children’s park guarded by a girl who tries to take our money for entry.

Same swept mountains as Quito or New Mexico. Some people hunger for the ocean and they would hurt here; Mongolia is landlocked as they come. But natural landscape is powerful to me in each of its forms; one can feel the mountains as in the Andes or Sangre de Cristo—pulsing with slow-as-molasses power, as commanding as any series of waves.