Saturday, October 13, 2012

Tomorrow morning Keita and I will wing our way south in blissful air conditioned comfort, courtesy of Elisabeth and Hinnerk, our Austrian friends who were stationed in Bandiagara before the April troubles, working for the Deutsche Entwicklungsdienst, I believe. They have now entrusted their car to us to use or to sell if we find a buyer. This may prove difficult- the market has collapsed in Bamako- too many people have left and are still leaving, selling all they own. But we will try, of course. The road seen behind is now cut in two by the advancing water. It is the road that leads to the hotel and the neighbourhood behind. Now the path of sand bags will begin-vehicles will have to be parked at the main road and people will walk.On the positive side it will mean no annoying and noisy motorcycles going up and down. We are leaving at a critical time- but I need to send things from Bamako- once again to Elisabeth and Hinnerk, who are preparing a MaliMali fashion show in Vienna! We are leaving Ace in charge. I will be back in a few days to look after a Dutch journalist. He phoned me from Kenya the other day, and enquired timidly if he might come and stay and interview me (having first taken the charming precaution of 'following me' on Twitter!) He started by saying that he was a follower of my blog, and that he knew I didn’t like journalists. He wants to talk about the Manuscript Library. I said he was of course very welcome. Although I am a firm believer that generalizations are normally quite spot on, there are of course always plenty of exceptions that prove the rules... Of course it will be fun to have a Dutch journalist here to talk to and have sunset cocktails with!

4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Well, no-one can accuse this blog of not capturing the imagination. Every day I imagine the water rising another inch and wonder what next I will find on here. The whole blog is a great read and it really should be a book. Perhaps that could spin a little money for you in these times, although I imagine you scarcely have time to look up from your bogolans.

8:35 AM  
Blogger toubab said...

Hello Clare,
thank you for your kind words about the blog- thre have been a couple of people who have suggested trying to edit it and put it into book form. But I have said that I haven't finished yet! I think it needs to arrive at the end for me to understand what were the important bits and be able to give it shape. I have some idea that one day I might sit down and try and do that, when I have nothing else to do!

11:21 PM  
Blogger afrika-wahn Elisabeth Böhm said...

Hy, Sophie,
this is good news that there will be a Mali-Mali exhibition in Vienna. Please let me know when and where it takes place. Vienna is my hometown and I would love to see this exhibition.
Good luck for you
Elisabeth

9:59 AM  
Blogger afrika-wahn Elisabeth Böhm said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

9:59 AM  

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