Northern Dreams

Ever since I've come here, I've been having the most fascinating dreams.  Must be the fresh Northern air, or something.  They're all kind of borderline nightmare, but I always wake up feeling refreshed.  I used to have some interest in dream interpretation, and these dreams are ripe for analysis.  Here's an example.

I'm living in Mali, slightly outside of Karadie.  One day, I walk into the village, and everyone is wearing armor.  I walk a little further and find that everyone in the second half of the village is without armor.  They tell me that the village has divided, and that the armored Malians are now my enemies.  I tell them that the armored Malians greeted me normally and were acting as friendly as ever.  The unarmored Malians tell me that this is "bad" and "wrong".  They then tell me that it is time to go fishing.  For some reason, Karadie is sitting next to a large body of water.  I wade into the water and pull out a fish with my bare hands.  They want me to kill it, so that they can prepare it.  I don't know how to kill a fish, but I think that I will try to cut it's throat.  However, I am nervous and my hand is shaking.  When I strike down with the knife, I accidentally cut it's stomach open instead of it's throat.  I try again and manage to cut it's throat.  I walk away to avoid watching the fish die.  After I leave the village, one of the villagers runs out to meet me and tells me that I had done an insufficient job at killing the fish and that they had had to kill it again after I'd left.

I've also dreamed about going into the Cree sweatlodge again, but losing my memory while inside, and then regaining consciousness some time afterward, and learning that I had gone on living and acting as normal after the ritual, but retaining no memory for some time.

I also dreamed that my Ways2Work group had a reunion, and we visited the cousin of an alumni, and he kept trying to sell me shoes even though I told him I wasn't interested.

I also had a dream that I was riding out of Karadie on an elephant.  I was worried that I hadn't given them enough as a going-away present.  The elephant I was riding hesitated to leave, but a female elephant held his trunk with hers and led him out.  I decided, however, to jump off of the elephant and run back into the village.  My host father, two host mothers, and the girl I was dating were all sitting in a circle, eating.  I started pulling up skids with massive amounts of goods and leaving them near them.  I reached out and touched one of them on the shoulder, but she recoiled, because my touch was as cold as ice.  I kept saying that I "Wasn't done" and that I "Could still give more" and kept running and pulling up skids full of gifts.  But they were all looking at me with worried expressions.

So yeah, dreams from all across my life, and I can't get over that Mali experience.