this morning we had a staff meeting, to discuss various complaints that have arisen- it turned out mostly to have to do with authority. Fatou is the only woman here apart from me, and noone wants to listen to her for this reason. My staff asked me to agree that whenever she had something to say she should adress herself first to Beigna, who would then speak on her behalf!!
I said that here, at the hotel, Fatou had as much right to speak as anyone else, and I was having nothing to do with their Malian customs as far as the running of the hotel was concerned.
Otherwise, as you can see from the above snapshot, the staff get on very well: Beigna the barman and Baba the serveur are the best of friends, but tease each other and everyone else continuously.