I am so annoyed!
I travelled all the way to Segou yesterday, only partly for the Festival de Segou which started yesterday, the other reason was to be able, finally, to reach a reliable internet connection. Djenne has been cut off from the world for the last ten days. I have nevertheless worked on several fronts, assembling everything on my USB memory stick. I have a long blog post prepared with several pictures, for one thing.
And what do I do? I leave the blasted thing behind in Djenne!
Fortunately I ran into the charming Saundra from Los Angeles (above,) and her three glittering African-American girl friends who cheered me up again and who escorted me to the opening ceremony of the festival. Saundra has been following this journal for three years and says she feels she knows me well already although we have never met.As always I am amazed that a stranger should be interested in what happens to me! But of course, people follow it for other reasons, perhaps to glean some information not about me but about Djenne or Mali. Yes that is of course it...
In any case, she was not planning to come to Djenne, but had nevertheless been arranging to send me a donation for the next cataract operations planned by MaliMali for next Christmas.
And now she was able to do so directly! I am very pleased for her generous gift and finally the evening turned out well after all, thanks to Saundra (and friends)!