Tanzania
I love Yakko's World, and especially love how he says 'Taaaaanzania.'
I was on yahoo instant messenger a week or so ago--I seldom use YIM, but sign on occasionally because it's nice to see what some of the old chat friends are up to--and Tony Weaver was signed in. I hadn't talked to Tony in years. We went to college together, sort of; when G and I were briefly broken up, Tony and I hooked up. Back then, he was cute and smart and all that. Very Christian oriented, but not SOOO Christian that he didn't mind fucking around on the couch.
I sent him a greeting, and we both expressed our surprise to see the other online. He said he was moving to NYC in a few days, which was kind of funny. Even more funny: he was moving to Washington Heights two train stops away from me. It was funny to me because I'd always wondered where Tony landed, and thought about him from time to time, and, when I finally found out where he DID land... well, it was a few blocks down from me.
After a few false starts, we finally managed to meet up today for a late lunch or an early dinner (it wasn't brunch tho because I didn't get drunk on mimosas).
Tony said he'd spent some time in the Peace Corps, working in Tanzania, which I thought was incredibly cool. He misses his village, where he learned to speak Swahili, and where he taught the locals AIDS education and other things. "It was so great," he said. "I loved doing it."
He met a guy while over there. "Before I went, I checked out the gay network for Peace Corps, just to see what it was like for gay guys doing that sort of thing. Man, I got so much action. The only people who go into the Peace Corps are gay guys and straight girls."
The guy he'd been talking to online was a bit older, and had done the Peace Corps thing already. "I knew I liked him, and, you know, he shared my values and interests, but I didn't want to like him as much as I did. He finally came to Tanzania about two months before I was leaving, and we hit it off. We went out a few times and... oh my god, the things he did to me." Tony grinned, lost in the memory of dirty things. "We're trying to pretend we're not together because he's gonna be over there for two more years, and I'm back here, and we don't want to force the other to wait. But damn."
He asked about Greg and me.
"You guys have been together for, like, 35 years," he said.
"In gay years, yeah."
He told me about going to a resort in Zanzibar before flying home, and how bored he was in Alabama when he returned. "I basically felt as if there was nothing going on, nothing to do, and no reason to do it."
He moved up here because he's always wanted to live in NYC. He wanted to try his luck. He's currently living with Peace Corps friends in Washington Heights--they're letting him crash in their apartment until he can find a place for himself.
He's gotten a job helping gay and lesbian foster children assimilate themselves into society (tho that's probably not the best way to explain what he does; he's a councilor for GLBT foster kids). "I won't be using Swahili," he said rather mournfully. "I minored in Spanish, but I can barely speak it."
He mentioned that he was a great dancer. "There wasn't much to do in Tanzania. I spent a lot of alone time. Basically, it was Club Tony at my place. I danced alone to music friends sent me."
I kind of like that image: Tony, in a shack in a village in Tanzania, bumping and griding around his living room, in his underwear, to Scissor Sisters.
"I even had my own Fly Girls. I didn't know it, but some of the girls in the village would dance on my porch while I was dancing in the house."
He told me that, for private fun, some friends in the States would send him gay porn mags. "It's a crime in Tanzania to be gay," he said. "You could get 25 to life for being gay."
"It's bad to be gay, so they send you to prison, where you can have more gay sex than you can have in civvie life?"
"Yeah."
"'Oz' isn't big in Tanzania, I'm guessing."
"Oh god I wish. That show got me thru high school."
His friends would send him porn mags, like 'Inches,' cleverly disguised as innocuous mail (because sometimes the officials would open his mail). "One friend sent me a porno mag wrapped in a Time magazine," he said.
We hung out for a while, and will be going to The Colbert Report taping on Wednesday. I'm glad he's here, and glad he's landed such an interesting job.
I was on yahoo instant messenger a week or so ago--I seldom use YIM, but sign on occasionally because it's nice to see what some of the old chat friends are up to--and Tony Weaver was signed in. I hadn't talked to Tony in years. We went to college together, sort of; when G and I were briefly broken up, Tony and I hooked up. Back then, he was cute and smart and all that. Very Christian oriented, but not SOOO Christian that he didn't mind fucking around on the couch.
I sent him a greeting, and we both expressed our surprise to see the other online. He said he was moving to NYC in a few days, which was kind of funny. Even more funny: he was moving to Washington Heights two train stops away from me. It was funny to me because I'd always wondered where Tony landed, and thought about him from time to time, and, when I finally found out where he DID land... well, it was a few blocks down from me.
After a few false starts, we finally managed to meet up today for a late lunch or an early dinner (it wasn't brunch tho because I didn't get drunk on mimosas).
Tony said he'd spent some time in the Peace Corps, working in Tanzania, which I thought was incredibly cool. He misses his village, where he learned to speak Swahili, and where he taught the locals AIDS education and other things. "It was so great," he said. "I loved doing it."
He met a guy while over there. "Before I went, I checked out the gay network for Peace Corps, just to see what it was like for gay guys doing that sort of thing. Man, I got so much action. The only people who go into the Peace Corps are gay guys and straight girls."
The guy he'd been talking to online was a bit older, and had done the Peace Corps thing already. "I knew I liked him, and, you know, he shared my values and interests, but I didn't want to like him as much as I did. He finally came to Tanzania about two months before I was leaving, and we hit it off. We went out a few times and... oh my god, the things he did to me." Tony grinned, lost in the memory of dirty things. "We're trying to pretend we're not together because he's gonna be over there for two more years, and I'm back here, and we don't want to force the other to wait. But damn."
He asked about Greg and me.
"You guys have been together for, like, 35 years," he said.
"In gay years, yeah."
He told me about going to a resort in Zanzibar before flying home, and how bored he was in Alabama when he returned. "I basically felt as if there was nothing going on, nothing to do, and no reason to do it."
He moved up here because he's always wanted to live in NYC. He wanted to try his luck. He's currently living with Peace Corps friends in Washington Heights--they're letting him crash in their apartment until he can find a place for himself.
He's gotten a job helping gay and lesbian foster children assimilate themselves into society (tho that's probably not the best way to explain what he does; he's a councilor for GLBT foster kids). "I won't be using Swahili," he said rather mournfully. "I minored in Spanish, but I can barely speak it."
He mentioned that he was a great dancer. "There wasn't much to do in Tanzania. I spent a lot of alone time. Basically, it was Club Tony at my place. I danced alone to music friends sent me."
I kind of like that image: Tony, in a shack in a village in Tanzania, bumping and griding around his living room, in his underwear, to Scissor Sisters.
"I even had my own Fly Girls. I didn't know it, but some of the girls in the village would dance on my porch while I was dancing in the house."
He told me that, for private fun, some friends in the States would send him gay porn mags. "It's a crime in Tanzania to be gay," he said. "You could get 25 to life for being gay."
"It's bad to be gay, so they send you to prison, where you can have more gay sex than you can have in civvie life?"
"Yeah."
"'Oz' isn't big in Tanzania, I'm guessing."
"Oh god I wish. That show got me thru high school."
His friends would send him porn mags, like 'Inches,' cleverly disguised as innocuous mail (because sometimes the officials would open his mail). "One friend sent me a porno mag wrapped in a Time magazine," he said.
We hung out for a while, and will be going to The Colbert Report taping on Wednesday. I'm glad he's here, and glad he's landed such an interesting job.