Bamako, Mali. 3/9

We’re getting on a plane in a few hours for the three-legged trip home. It’s somewhat depressing but we’re looking forward to certain things, like spinach.

Much has gone undocumented here, and it will remain so, you’ll be pleased to hear. But we do need to offer brief sketches of certain characters we have encountered, real quick.

Dave: British. 50-ish. Divorced for 15 years or so. Travels to Africa for about four months a year visiting remote villages and buying old and even ancient trading beads, then selling them on the internet at toubab.com. Very amusing. Taught us a great bargaining trick, which he used on a little kid selling a leather Tuareg box. Kid: “10,000” CFA. Dave: “2,000.” Kid: “9,500.” Dave: “2,000.” Kid: “9,000.” Dave: “2,000.” Kid: “8,500.” Dave: “1,900.” Kid: “Huh???” Dave: “1,800.” Kid: “8,000.” Dave: “1,700.” Kid (now really puzzled): “7,000.” Dave: “1,600.” Kid (now downright concerned): “2,000?” Dave: “deal.”

Babs and Becks: Two lovely British women, who did not seem to appreciate being compared to Edina and Patsy of Absolutely Fabulous. But for gods sake, one of them had an affair with a Tuareg! They were great fun, and we sat on a cliff in a Dogon village with them and watched a total eclipse of the moon while the Dogon tried to drum away the bad omen.

Charlie and Camilla: Son and mother. Australian. Charlie was an insurance broker, but also interesting and smart, and handled his somewhat high maintenance mother beautifully, and we have been forced to reevaluate any stereotypes about insurance brokers. Camilla saves Ghanian orphans or something.

Mac: former Christian missionary whose 25-year career ended after his wife left him when she discovered she had been a victim of sibling incest. Now he runs a hotel in Sevare and is a licensed masseur.

Norwegian dude whose name we can’t remember: Biking from Madrid to Ghana. About 60 years old. What the hell??

Aging female European sex tourists: lots of them. Weird.

Hassimi: Our guide for the trek in Dogon country. Nice guy, great laugh and fortunately for us somewhat lazy, but kind of annoying in that he kept prowling for European sex tourists.

Thanks for reading, mom. We’ll see you soon!