Meli Melo

People flitting in and out of the Centre - tonight a doctoral student from Columbia U, studying Algerian cinema. Apparently there are some real gems of films to be seen, most are online. Another from Nice who is doing a documentary on Catholic churches here. His camaraman is still visa-less though in Bordeaux. In the morning, a biologist left - she came for a few days for a conference, despite it having been cancelled. Cancelled conferences left right and centre here - made the mews today.

I tell people I am from Canada, which generally consists of Montreal in most people's minds here. Algeria has a legislative representative for Algerians in Montreal, and as elections are coming up (for what they are worth), the representative was there fairly recently. In the recent bombing of the mosque, two were from Algeria. The daily news has a blog specifically for Montreal - you would think it was part of this country.

The Fetes du Tapis in Ghardaïa was much fun. It was kind of a 3 hour fashion show for carpets along the main drag. Photos permitted, by everyone of everyone - that was by far the most amazing thing. It almost felt normal. Well, apart from all the police on the ground and snipers on the roofs. Loaded guns that were shot in celebration. I'll not firget the shockwaves, the intense mini-seismic events. Lots of smoke, ventolin in hand. Z said that it reminded her of the terrorism times in the 90s.

Returned on Saturday on Tassili Airlines. Owned entirely by Sonotrach, the government-owned oil company, and mainly used to get people to the oil fields. I enjoy North African flights, the few that I've been on. You can bring water in you carry-on luggage, they're not fussy at all with how much carry-on you bring and there's lots of room up there, and for a 1.5 h flight, you get 3 non-sweet patisseries and a drink. Like the good ol' days. Though we had a 2 h delay before flight, a 30 minute delay once landed, and a 30 minute delay trying to get out of the parking lot. Unemployment is high, but they don't seem to fight it with employment.

Possibly Oran on Wednesday for a couple of days, perhaps will see where Camus and YSL lived. Finally a tour of the Casbah on Saturday. Read a bit today on the journalist Hollingworth, and her coverage of the Algerian Independence in 1962. How she delved into the Casbah to get her FLN sources. A bit also on the wars before. There is a street variously named Fraklin Roosevelt or Franklin Roosvelt that I walk down fairly often.