October 6, 1980

TAMANRASSET, ALGERIA
This morning my five-day constipation turned into an unimaginable case of diarrhea. The two-mile walk into town wiped me out and after a half-dozen more shits, sometimes only a minute apart, and one very thorough puking, I lay down on the sidewalk with the others and didn't get up for six hours. Eventually we got kicked out for vagrancy, but the rest and the starvation were doing some good.

I'd spent about 20 of the past 24 hours lying down, when Jens, Frederico and I went to the bakery and slept on the roof.