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01 Jul
China
Subject: beetle in hand worth 2 in sand
the economics of these towns becomes increasingly dubious.
Besides growing grapes and melons.
Directly behind the hotel we're staying in today is some kind of heavily
fortified military installation with submarine type door portals and towers
with lolling guards. To me it looks like a missile silo. Hard to say
though as chinese architecture is sometimes very mysterious.
The military presence grows as we head back east along the southern desert
rim. I wonder how close all the nuclear testing is done. Havn't seen a
visible tumor rise, but the bugs are getting gigantic and well-armored.
A few days back near Artux passed some other curious installation that
involved covering the tops of about 200 small mountains with white sand bags
or maybe it was boulders painted white, leaving one exposed square hole in
the center. One guy I met had some fish from a nearby kazak lake hospitably
forced upon him by locals. He was nervous because he drank some water there
that made his lips burn.
Yesterday we did our performance in a dirt soccer field under the brutal
afternoon sun. The place was packed. There were hundreds of police
attempting to keep the audience from swarming the stage.
Havn't been to a hotel with showers for many days. Just buckets.
I've got some nasty cold which makes the sun feel hotter and the dirt
thicker and my skin stickier. That and I eat too many melons and get the
shits.
The last two days were spent around Yengisar which is the town most of the
tightrope performers are from so we spent a lot of time visiting relatives
homes which are really beautiful. On the outside the uighur towns are just
uniform tan dried mud. But inside is total color expolosion. The
courtyards are covered with grape arbor roofs and the rooms have
red/orange/pink carpets covering all the walls and floor. And there's
usually amazing landscapes and patterns painted all over the ceilings. I
would make my house just like it if i had a house.
today is Adil's birthday. He's 30.
more sometime later.
sweating more, thinking less, deborah
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