Death Rattles and Other Warnings

Dean woke me up last night with what could best be described as a death rattle. Poor guy had a rough night, but is feeling better today. Yazid and Youseff met us at 7 AM to take the train to
Constantine. We were severely warned not to take the train and definitely not to go to Constantine, so I really couldn't wait to see what all the fuss is about. Riding through the Algerian landscape by train provides a wide variety of views and contrasts in scenery, industry, culture, and quality of life. The train is dirty, smelly, and certainly not a smooth ride. The horn blows at irregular 8 second intervals the whole way, and annoying vendors are allowed to wander the cars. The toilet has no water resulting in an unpleasant build up in, on, and around the seatless toilet. The people are nice, on the other hand, as a space enforced/encouraged community forms for conversation, child care, story telling, and old fashioned bulldookie. The scenes outside have changed from urban concrete to lush green mountains, to fogged in rock lined valleys, to desert as far as the eye can see. There is a surprisingly large amount of agriculture even in the sand regions, where it appears the land is being redeemed for crop development and growth. Although the country has electricity throughout, the train is diesel, with the common herky-jerky motion evident. Just to keep us on our toes, kids randomly throw rocks at the train making loud sounds against the metal sides and plexi-glass (I hope) windows. Upon arrival in Constantine, after I was assured by a policeman we would be robbed and mugged in broad daylight, we walked to the L'hotel Roach Part Deux and have escaped major crime so far. We hope to head to Anabas tomorrow, but have just found out from a train worker there was an accident this evening which has cancelled train service for tomorrow. It looks like we will check out a luxury bus in the morning.