“du coté de gao” “near the niger river “

now bording, for the first part of my tavel in north Mali … 

The iron gate of the garden of the hotel squeaked open and a Tuareg comes in. He wears a red   coppered bubu  and a dark Arabic scarf . Here is Moussa our friend  who for a while, has  left his indigo dress. He steps up to welcome us and his arrival disrupts in no way the customs of birds: in a nimier, a tilabert incubate its eggs in a traditional nest whereas above us a toujoumba (in songhai) magnificent yellow bird, diligently transports indefatigably some new twigs to perfect its nest.

Ibrahim, cheerful face and always smiling, come into the tree-shaded garden , followed closely by the young lady I saw in the airport. Here is “Blanche de Richemont ” says to us Ibrahim  and I remember:  i have read her name on the book of Moussa “ in collaboration with Blanche de Richemont “…

The ” young person ” whom I discover there, has nothing to do with the one that I imagined !

She is a writer, a specialist of deserts and she is in Mali to do the last modifications to her next book ” the eulogy of the desire “ 

We leave them ,they have to discuss and  Mossa has just arrived .He suggests us discovering Gao. Our guide, this afternoon is called Sidi, he is a Mossa’s cousin.
In fact here, everything ,takes place in family, the travel agency is Mossa ’s one and guides or drivers are  his cousins…

~ by ysoj on July 15, 2007.