All over the city Yaoundé, Cameroon there are Agama lizards scampering around! The orange lizard is the male and the green brown lizard the female. The male lizard bobs his head up and down. There is a folktale that explains this action:

The orange lizard was up in a tree and a dog came barking with lots of questions for the lizard: “Are you happy today lizard?”

And Lizard nods, “Yes, yes”

And Dog says: “Will you come down to play?”

And Lizard nods: “Yes, yes.”

And Dog says: “Hurry

I met Bèbè Bebay at an artist space called Africrea in Yaoundé. He is the technician for the space and helped us get our show ready for performance. When we had some down time he got out his djemmbe drum and played for us. He told me that this rhythm is from the south of Cameroon near the Atlantic coast in the Bassa language. In Cameroon there are 250 different languages but French and English are both official languages.

We are off to Yaoundé, Cameroon via Algiers and then Casablanca, Morocco and finally Yaoundé, Cameroon to participate in the RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES THEATRALES DU CAMEROUN.

Here is Cameroon on google maps.

In order to travel safetly to Cameroon we had to get vaccinated against yellow fever. We also have to take pills to help our bodies fight against malaria in case we are bitten by an infected mosquito.

More to come!

This week sheep are the THING here in Algeria. Tuesday and Wednesday will mark the feast of Eid El Kebir, a very important holiday in on the Islamic calendar which marks when Abraham sacrificed a ram instead of his son Ishmael. If you are interested in reading more about the religious side of this holiday you can learn more on the BBC’s educational website here.

I can imagine that Eid celebrations vary from country to country. Here is what a typical Eid is like in western Algeria. About a

Oftentimes in the mornings I wake up to the call of someone selling fruit, vegetables, or fish walking through the neighborhood with a donkey pulling a heavy cart. Sometimes they drive by shouting out their car windows in Arabic “Tomatysh! Carrota! Batata!” (Tomatoes! Carrots! Potatoes!) They have a special way of calling out that sounds like they are shouting from deep down in their guts and then the sound gets caught in the back of their throat in a really gruff way.

More Roman ruins! Algeria is full of them! This time I went to Timgad in eastern Algeria to visit the ancient Roman city of Thamugadi. Unlike other Roman sites in Algeria nothing was labeled so I had to come back to the internet and my Algeria guidebooks to figure out what I was looking at.