A Patch Work

Well, London is claiming me back with all its charms…Jeremiah, as usual, is keeping me entertained with events at Europe House   ( https://www.facebook.com/12StarGallery/,) above and below with Nick Sargent.

 and last night I went to the Chelsea Arts Club and had lovely dinner and lots of drinks with old friends and Mali veterans Lucy and Andrew- the latter took me to the Almeida for a great play on Wednesday  called Against- and  at the same time I am  in daily touch with Timbuktu , Bamako  and Djenné.

The factions that have been working against the Manuscript Library in Djenné have had a final go at trying to close us down, claiming that we are working illegaly. They wanted to see proof that the projects in Djenné had had Malian government approval and cooperation at the outset which it did of course.  I was able to contact London  who managed to find, in the archives, the first project with its signatures and stamps from the representative of the Mission Culturelle in Djenné : that is the local representative of the Ministry ot Culture. That has not stopped the agitators, who are determined to cause us some harm. And all, I suspect, because they  have not earned any money from the project themselves. 

And in Timbuktu the staff have all returned safely and are now waiting for Suleyman, the instructor to arrive from Bamako to set up all the material so the team can finally start working.

 But all that seems a long way away when I sit here, painting my  suggestions for the floorcloth in Auckland Castle.

                                                                         

And now Sunday lunch is cooking slowly in the oven while I go to mass at St Francis, Pottery Lane. Soon old friends Yonatani, Claire and Geoff will be joining me for roast Lamb and mint sauce.  My world seems a patchwork quilt of many  disparate elements, both ordinary and extraordinary, that somehow all work together to make a whole…