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When I stepped out of the plane the first thing that hit me was the hot air blowing gently across the runway, the sweet smell of culture and the dusty aroma in the air filled my nostrils. That's when I knew I have reached home. I could not wait to pass through the endless and tiring security checks I had to go through before being allowed out of the airport. After an excruciating hour which felt like eternity, I was finally allowed to exit the arrivals lounge and into the crowded waiting area where my family stood eagerly waiting to welcome me.
Mar 04, 2012
….When she walked into my life, it felt like her floating steps came towards me in slow motion to Celine Dion and Barbara Streisand’s “Tell Him”. A dark pigment of beauty with skin that seemed to hold the caressing power of the clouds that hung over head and a smile that put mermaids to shame she walked towards me…not stopping…head held high…shoulders arched in catastrophically mesmerizing symphony. From the distance, her eyes sparkled with real anticipation…as if we had met before…and then as she got closer…her smile no longer widened…a confused look in her eyes.
My smile disappeared as did hers…mistaken identity…yet one which we were both too embarrassed to acknowledge…so she came all the way…and a conversation…”Xame naa la de”…”ah man tamit y munumaa xam fan la worn”…and we exchanged numbers.
Today was one of those I just-want-to-have-a good-laugh-with-a-silly-girlfriend-day and boy was it! I called on one of my favorite and funniest girlfriends, and I think I might have to rub Chinese Balm or Karité on my ribs tonight, due to the rib-cracking laughter I had.
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BRAVO BARCA – GRACIAS GUARDIOLA – MERCI MESSI; WORTHY CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE
At a time when football is blemished …no, badly scarred, with scandals that really do not represent the game, true fans of the beautiful game would give anything to get something - anything - positive, about the game we so love. This is why, instead of doing a post match analysis, I’m using the space to say THANK YOU to FC Barcelona for allowing us, even if for a brief moment, to forget our “troubles” and be reminded of all the GOOD reasons we so love our good football.
Mar 16, 2008
I went to a free Habib Koité & Bamada concert yesterday at the Alliance, and it's hands-down the best concert I've been to ever. Habib himself plays some five different instruments, and his supporting band are just as strong: his Balofon player ( Kélétigui Diabaté), for example, is a dour-looking old man who seems to be more dead than alive, until he sits in front of the Balofon and takes up the sticks, at which point he seems to be more Balofon than man. Then the Old Man of the Balofon put down his sticks, and grabbed a violin from somewhere, and tucked it under his chin and destroyed all movie-initiated clichés I had had of young, white violin players.
Oct 18, 2007
I got a copy of "Proverbs of the Sene-Gambia", by Bamba and Mariama Khan, this morning. It's a beautiful little orange book, very well laid out, with a nice illustration of a xalam player on the cover. Inside is a brief introduction by the authors, then the proverbs start, numbered from 1 through 275, with about five on every page. The small size of the book is a great thing, making it easy to carry around and the whimsical font-face adds to the laid-back tone, letting you flip through at random, on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The main problem I had with the book was the lack of attribution. In the preface the authors allude to certain resource persons they used for the different languages, which gives you the impression that they did their research well, and built up a database of proverbs before they started.
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