I am currently a graduate student in Geography at UNC Chapel Hill. The blog posts here are from my time working as a human rights observer accompanying the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, in Colombia. More info is at www.forusa.org
Visit my music website at www.myspace.com/lovethemagician
This blog's title has its roots in an overland trip through North and West Africa...
2006- I left Spain for Morocco, and my first day a local family took me in. The greatest hospitality I've ever experienced. Couscous, learning some Arabic, spending the Eid-Al Adha holiday with them... They couldn't say 'Chris', so it turned to Dris, and I was renamed Idriss, the name of an Islamic prophet which is common today. Later, while on a train from Dakar, Senegal, to Bamako, Mali, the Malians working on the train asked my name. I said Idriss, and they responded "Idriss what? what about a last name?" I responded, well, Courtheyn, I guess.... To that they assured, "Oh no no no... you must have an African name. You will be given a new name, Keita, after the great founding family of Mali." So from that day forward, my new name was set: Idriss Keita.....
