Last night when Peter came home Stefan and I were in the pool, and Peter ended up jumping in too. It’s the super hot season now, yesterday the embassy thermometer said 125 degrees. But if you jump in the pool, then sit under the fan in the pilote, the palm trees wave around, bouganvilla blossoms drop in the pool, the bananas hang in the trees, Stefan pretends to be a dolphin…sweet times I don’t want to forget.
Aicha impresses me with the fine lines and beautiful designs she paints in henna, and she’s so fast! The henna smells like incense. After the henna dries, which happens quickly in 105 degree heat, you wash it off and can barely see the designs anymore. Then you put your hands into a huge pot that has in the base of it smoking embers. You sit slumped over in an inelegant position with your hands in a pot of smoke for five or ten minutes, the longer the darker the henna.
Here people usually get painted for a special celebration like a wedding. Don’t worry Mom, it’s temporary.
Up some stairs, on a outdoor terrace, under some strings of half-funtioning lights, we ate dinner last night at Maquis 2000, (say ma-kee-deu-mill) my new favorite restaurant. Choose huge beef brochettes, chicken, capitain (river perch from the Niger) pintade (guinea fowl) or agouti (river rat.) Each entree comes with either an entire plate rice, a serving bowl of a tomato-polenta-aspic kind of thing, or a pile of fried plantains. Your chicken, fish, beef or whatever comes grilled, smothered in onions and tomatoes with a pile of fresh garlic, ginger, peppers or lime. About $10 a person. This is my plate of capitain gingembre. I want to go back next Friday.
twenty-something years of "what have you been up to?" 