My stay in the ravishing Swedish countryside has come to an end, and my return to Mali draws nearer. One day before leaving, my mother and I wore our regional costumes. This is quite normal in this part of Sweden, and we wore it for a church service. It does of course make us quite exotic in the eyes of foreign visitors. It is quite fun to be a tourist attraction and to understand what it is like to be ‘on the other side’ as it were.
Once an American tourist approached us, beaming, and said very slowly and loudly: ‘Do you understand English?’ My mother and I beamed back, and I said, slowly and with some apparent difficulty: ‘Yes, a little’. ‘Do you always dress like this?’ enquired the American. I lied of course.