afrikaburns: part 3

DAYTIME:

• Painted a design on a tapestry. 
• Took a trip to Alice and Wonderland when we walked through a little door into a tea party that served cupcakes that read “eat me.” 
• Had a personal dance party with our own private dj. Were soon handed cold beers. You know, just because.
• Did probably the best people watching of my life. Some on glowing bikes, some on pirate ships, others in fuzzy-bunny-slipper-motorbikes, or moving concert stages.
• Visited a matchmaking love shack tent that provided heart cupcakes, heart lollipops, wine, and filled out a survey to set us up on a blind date that night. 
• Given shell necklaces to wear.
• Ate bourbon cherries (they came with pancakes in the morning, but we missed it.)
• Sat and talked in the middle of the desert in a little field of glow-stick-y phallic plastic things (the kind you get from Disney Land). 
• Frolicked in a neon-flower garden with children (there were people there of all ages!). 
• Went to a bathroom that had only three walls and overlooked desert and mountains at sunset.
• Watched a yoga class in the same place we later took a long nap in. Were handed baby-wipes to freshen up with by a fairy princess (AKA: little girl dressed in white).
• Ran into my tutorial professor dressed as an avatar. Got very excited that I called the resemblance day one of class.

 NIGHTTIME:

• Painted a face on a canvas. 
• Looked at flying dragons in the sky.
• Walked through a red womb-looking wooden tunnel/sculpture. At one point there were two women in there doing unpleasant things to unpleasant piercings that I care not to rehash in too much detail.
• Got a group of people to dance the Horah (Jewish dance which is like the grape vine in a circle) while we watched Taroh cards being projected on a screen. 
• Saw a man juggling high-tech balls that lit up according to the rhythm he caught and threw them in, and danced to another dj. 
• Hung out in an octopus garden. It was a smallish room, made of cloth walls, full of dangling sea creatures made of string and fabric that glowed under its accompanying black light. Also, one of the walls had Planet Earth projected onto it and had two lawn chairs outside to watch it on.
• Watched a woman spin fireballs around. 
• Sucked on some sour lollipops.
• Returned to Alice and Wonderland to dance to drum and bass. 
• Attended literally the best party I’ve ever been to. In the middle of the U-formation was a truck that had a three-wall living room in the back with comfy couches, framed pictures, and lamps. The Living Room looked out onto a giant Lego man and a huge dance party. There was an insanely amazing DJ who remixed songs including Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Superstition. The truck also had a wooden sculpture thing that would occasionally spurt fire. Oh, and there were fireworks as well. No biggie.
• Danced in The Igloo (small club that looked like an igloo). Which is where Emma and I returned late-night to chill in nooks that were filled with cushions and pillows.

Our days and nights at AfrikaBurns consisted of floating in between all of these places and our tent, giving (rather, mostly taking) gifts, and picking up old and new friends along the way.

We rejoined reality Sunday afternoon. But I was ready to return to AfrikaBurns before I left.