ABSTRACT
Yesterday I made the mistake of going to the dentist, one of my two major phobias. 43 The fear aroused by being in a dentist chair released in me a flood of emotions that had been building over the last few months, feelings I had been suppressing for fear that they might interfere with my work here, as well as uncertainties about my work based on reactions I’ve received from friends back home who feel my writing has become extremist, one-sided, and offensive. Criticism from friends has been hard for me to hear and has made me question what I’m doing here and whether my steps towards forming a more concrete and perhaps radical opinion about the situation here are doing more harm than good.
