Friday, August 5, 2011

Jusqu’a maintenant

Guinean Francs spent on cell phone: 350000
Guinean Francs spent on cell phone credit: 10780
Mefloquine pills consumed: 4
Loads of laundry done: 3
Days when no rice consumed: 2
Liters of water consumed per day: 5
Snakes seen: 1
Hours of class per week: 36
Number of fans in the main meeting room: 0
Loaves of fresh bread eaten per week: 4
Number of children in the family: 6
Number of chairs in the family: 2
Standard number of people in a small taxi: 7
Cost of three cucumbers: $0.17
Presidential assassination attempts: 1
G-20 Peace Corps Trainees over age 24: 0
G-20 Peace Corps Trainees under age 22: 0
Number of loose stools per day required for diarrhea: 4+
Shots received: 7
Total hours of electricity at house: 11
Packages received: 0
Good days: 26

3 comments:

Unknown said...

ok sweetie... the package is on it's way... love ya, mom

dbostrom said...

First we had the "Harper's Index," now it's the "Tosten Index."

Great stuff, Tosten!

Ann Bostrom said...

Here's a mountain poem for your birthday, Tosten. Many happy days! - kda

Above Pate Valley
- by Gary Snyder

We finished clearing the last
Section of trail by noon,
High on the ridge-side
Two thousand feet above the creek
Reached the pass, went on
Beyond the white pine groves,
Granite shoulders, to a small
Green meadow watered by the snow,
Edged with Aspen—sun
Straight high and blazing
But the air was cool.
Ate a cold fried trout in the
Trembling shadows. I spied
A glitter, and found a flake
Black volcanic glass—obsidian—
By a flower. Hands and knees
Pushing the Bear grass, thousands
Of arrowhead leavings over a
Hundred yards. Not one good
Head, just razor flakes
On a hill snowed all but summer,
A land of fat summer deer,
They came to camp. On their
Own trails. I followed my own
Trail here. Picked up the cold-drill,
Pick, singlejack, and sack
Of dynamite.
Ten thousand years.