Monday, July 27, 2020

Crossroads.

Crossroads.
Or taking stock. Or treading water. What next? What makes one decide on something? Some people are methodical and sit down and do lists of pros and cons, add them up and go for the option with the overwhelming pros. Some do the list, then look at it, tear it up and do the cons. 

Some never decide anything at all but ‘go with the flow’. Mother used to call that ‘choosing the path of least resistance’. She said that with a lot of disdain, although that is what she mostly did herself. Some listen to the advice of friends even if they then discard the advice.  
My new park bench friend David says that I must be careful that the Fez idea is not some sort of symptom of post lock down cabin fever. My old friend Clare says that he clearly doesn’t know me. My other old friend Sanjay says I should scrap Fez and go for Italy, as previously dreamed about and planned for.
Some pray for guidance. But therein lay further obstacles- how to know if the ‘feeling’ of being guided in one direction is not just a temptation to go down some garden path to some looming catastrophe?
How did I decide to go to live in Djenne? It now feels as if that decision was so crystal clear that it was hardly a decision at all. My two month trip there in April/May 2006 ‘to get the feel of the place’ did not present any soul searching decision making - even before I arrived there it was a clinched deal somehow. So what to do with this new one? Of course there is only one way: I will have to go and at the end of September. But tonight the nice man from the finance brokers will call (Sanjay says don't trust him, theyr'e all crooks) - will they lend me the money? My flat lies above commercial properties which is a problem, apparently…
But like all things, it will eventually all be clear. And first I go to Sweden on Thursday!

Monday, July 13, 2020

Bamako unrest and Fez

           

                            Mali: l’imam Dicko, leader écouté de la contestation, appelle au calme 


Bamako has been shaken by three days of murderous uprisings. The former head of the Haute Conseil Islamic, the powerful Wahabist leaning Imam Dicko is widely accused of orchestrating the anti government demonstrations which aims to topple IBK- some say in order for himself  to try and grab power.  The entire country has been put on alert and even  in Timbuktu this morning the banks were closed. 

My Air France ticket has been booked for my long overdue return to Mali on the first of September-  who knows whether this will happen.

Everything now seems unstable in so many ways. It feels as if the very earth we stand on is  moving somehow, criss-crossed by fault lines of diverse origins- epidemics and other disasters pulling in different directions and threatening to make everything crumble...

Not perhaps the time to start dreaming and planning a risky new venture... but the other day some mysterious impulse made me look up properties for sale in Morocco and I landed immediately on this 18th century Riad in Fez with a roof terrace with 360 degree views over the medina and an outside space for a little garden and swimmingpool...

 

 


 

It needs complete refurbishment, but what a project! 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms! Thickly encrusted  with original glorious tiles and wood fret work! And I have a friend in Fez already, Gigi a vet who works in an American 'horse hospital' and knows all expats and has all necessary contacts of 'doing things up' in the medina. 

I was wondering why I have been learning Arabic- I thought that it was mainly in order to give Youssouf in Timbuktu some extra cash - and of course since I am involved in Arabic manuscripts it can be viewed as 'staff development'... but maybe there was another reason for it? Some sort of divine guidance with an ulterior motive? 

Hmmm.... what shall I call it? Riad Djenne? Riad Keita perhaps? 

I think I might just be serious about this...London life is just not quite enough. Let's see...

And there are enormous deposits of ancient Arabic manuscripts in Morocco of course, which my Benedictine friend and boss Father Columba would most certainly be interested in,  at least I should imagine so...