We were talking about the Flambuoyant tree.
And here it is, with its first flower!
The last couple of weeks in Djenne are always the same: dusty and unbelievably hot- thirty four degrees in my new bedroom at night. I have not yet installed an air conditioner, but have other luxuries such as a bath, which must surely be one of the only ones in Djenne. I immerse myself in a cold bath at night before going to bed, and then I leave the water in the tub and jump in three or four times during the night.
My mind is whirring busily in tandem with the fans as I am planning my travels: I am already half-way gone, hovering over Morocco which is the first stop, and continuing towards Italy. The latest idea is to spend a week in Italy on a cooking and Italian course! This because I spent half an hour the other night on the sunset terrace with a stray Italian tourist who did not speak a word of any language apart from Italian. I amazed myself by conducting a conversation with him in Italian, since there was no choice! SI! IO PARLATE ITALIANO! VERAMENTE! UNA MEZZA ORA SOLAMENTE ITALIANO! This went to my head to the extent that I thought just a week or so of intensive Italian course might just clinch it. And if there were some cooking too thrown in: BELLIZZIMO!
I bore all my German guests by insisting on speaking to them in German. I quote Goethe to them. Some of them like this, others get angry, like a recent one who didn’t like Goethe at all but wanted me to quote Nietsche instead. I could not comply and told him I didn’t like Nietsche.