The attempts at trying to tell Canazui the days events seemed to fill a good part of the morning, as well as some intense working sessions clearing and fixing things in the yard and maisonette, but we had things to take care of. He seemed excited over the story I told him and was impressed with the photos I showed him. Unfortunately being the overly male minded person that he is known for, questions about the extent of our ‘hanging out’ was the main part of conversation and him wanting to know what we ‘did’ when we could. Managing to find a way out of this, we both headed on over to Miriam’s mum’s place, with the echoes of Nasara coming from the streets covered and big toothy grins glowing along the dirt roads’ edges. It was here, I believe, that it was the previous night that Miriam had left for USA, but her last few days had been a ghost like presence, where her own family had barely seen her, due to hiding in her brother’s, Tony’s, work place.
In mama’s house, Canazui and I helped shred the needed parts of food to edible and non-edible sections, while drinking the brew that had no known concentration of alcohol. This hour and a half long task was used for us to fill in time while waiting for the lunch that was to be prepped up for us. With the morning being used for working, Canazui and I had established a healthy appetite, and we discovered Reciproka’s lack in the right spice for the food. So, after the time had passed, we got the energy to gather ourselves and head to a market that was near the discotheque that was near Reciproka. Note too, this previously mentioned establishment is like a vendor’s record shop, with a bit more solid foundations to the building. Talking to the guys here for a short while, we really had to get on the path of spice hunting. Behind the discotheque, a new world emerged. This every day market was huge and contained many narrow alleyways, barely wide enough for 3 people to stand abreast in, and to butter it up even further, the storms hitting the market allowed for sections to be mini quagmires needing delicate feet, or at times baring the brunt of the mud, walking through it and shrugging ones shoulders.
I think this part of the city was rarely, or never, visited by Nasaras as people were stopping there activities and conversations to have a gawk. At the spice section of the market, while Canazui was bargaining the spices, and enjoying the convervsing side of life, I was soon wanting to talk to a random person. She was a grandma, finishing conversation to other grandmas and trying to get her grandson not to stare at me so mesmerizingly, to which I asked what made me interesting his response was Nasara. To get the grandmother’s attention, I spoke in Moore and French, saying that in fact I was actually black, and it was seen at night time, with no light or moon. Suddenly her wrinkles changed from set in place to a whole bunch of crinkles, and while Canazui was talking about the spices, I ended up having a relatively spaced out chat to the ladies for the ten or so minutes, which was the extent of my French/ Moore vocabulary. It was also at this time that Canazui had felt it was time to deal with our stomachs.
Like previous, the walk out was amongst the ruined alley way like paths. Back at the ‘exit’ we said goodbyes to the discotheque crew with the promise of photos on our return. As we got back to Reciproka, the change from overly warm weather with the sun belting down on us, to enshrouding clouds heaving down on us was a less then hour alteration. The thing that I noticed here, and was also confirmation of what had been seen over the previous sudden storm approaches, was the rapidly moving clouds. This especially held true with none storm clouds, but storm clouds seemed to approach twice as rapidly as what I had been used to. As we walked in the yard, several overly large drops hit down on us, which was giving us enough time to bring in equipment, wood and any other potentially rain effected items.
With all inside, we were able to grab a quick feed. Afterwards, while I was preparing spreadsheets, and doing some research. the continual thumping from the kitchen was drawing my attention. Stopping with the progress slowly being made, I was able to see Canazui, once again, determined to find a means of grinding the spices. With an enlarged mortar and pestle, he was thumping and grinding at the little beads of spice. A while of doing this would give him the chance to scrape out the fine enough material and continue at the remaining portion. You would not believe how slow a progress this job was, both by my non-porfessional means of conducting the operations and Canazui’s more professional, and abled, methods. All the while that we were doing this, we could not take a step outside, until sunset, as the rain was set in for those hours of the afternoon (I think coming to a 3 hour storm).
OK, talking on the phone to Yvonne, I was trying to tell her how it would be hard with meeting Fidel for me to make it on over to ‘hang out’ for a while in the evening. This said, she told me not to worry, and yes, by the way things would work out she should be able to come on over by 19oo heures. One good thing was the storm clearing up by 18oo heures, thus giving Canazui and me enough time to play outside, in the mucky, flooded and garbage infested streets. Photos really do not depict the real atmosphere, the finally cooling down temperatures, which, due to my acclimatising I was now feeling cold with the rest of the general population.
A short time after 19oo heures, sure enough, Yvonne came along on the motorbike. By now it was now so expected to see people transported by their motorbikes, and to see a car, for me, was now a peculiarity. Over the past few days, Canazui and I had been distributing a higher grade soil on top of the current topsoil, which was known for not being able to have enough nutrients to sustain any form of adequate flora. This new topsoil, we had put on top, was unable to keep any strength properties after a decent sized storm. Pushing Yvonne’s motorbike through the yard, I had to use some real oomph to get the bike through the 8 metre quagmire. With this you would assume a collection of mud to fill in the tread of the tyres, but pushing the bike into the common space of Reciproka, the tyres were now unable to let it show the 8 metres mess it had to be tested through.
OK, with Canazui and Yvonne speaking Moore at first, Canazui asked me several questions and the word standing out was ‘les argent,’ ie money. So, being a little confused, a 1k bill was all I was going to be giving up (3 AUD). The reason soon dawned upon me, as he put on his shoes and left. Aah, the plan was to give Yvonne and me some alone time. Would lit be correct for me to say that I was just freaking out slightly. But after awhile of talking, I think maybe two hours, Yvonne mentioned how tired she was. To let you know, the day we had first met, Yvonne had been recovering from Malaria, which people in this region can get several times a year with no problem. Hearing how she had been feeling tired, I asked if she should lie down until Canazui came back. You can get any impression you want from the next part of this entry, even to me it sounds wrong, but you never know.
Once escorted, she lied down and I thought what the heck, lets do the same. While lying there I sensed some movement and with my eyes adjusting, I realised that Yvonne’s mode of sleeping may not have necessarily involved clothes. To, maybe save me, alter the situation, I heard the disturbance of the front door of Reciproka. The door was locked, wait that would explain why Canazui went through the kitchen door, and this could be locked prior to closing the door. “Canazui!” Aah, Donat was at the door, now he was still recovering from feeling sick several days ago. A variety of sinus problems and fever had plagued him for a while. A doctor had found the best medicine for him, and this is why Donat had come back.
With me not being able to unlock the door, Donat came from the kitchen side, to which unclasping was successful. Him walking in was the same time Yvonne had come into the common area too. This caused a bit of a falter in Donat’s step, just slightly. I introduced them and Donat wanted to get back for enough rest for teaching, especially now not feeling on top of the world. As he was leaving, less then 20 seconds after him leaving, Canazui came back. Now being late, Yvonne had to head on home, and so we went as three: Canazui by himself on his moped, and Yvonne and I on her longer seated bike. So, it was from here that I found the best path back to Yvonne’s place for my next adventure: Going to another city about a hundred and a bit more kilometres away Ouahgouya, or similar to that. This was to be happening in a couple of days, after some more lessons in natural material. All was good in getting Yvonne back home, but on the way back, man, the passenger seat was more like an item to torture ones butt. At Reciproka, Canazui and I crashed.
