Bidets, Palio, Mali and other important matters

 My computer is being mended. I am surviving with some irritation and discomfort, doing everything with my little telefonino, as they call it here.                        

I am having meetings with Paolo, my handsome young architect, and we are running into some problems in the bathroom department (the arguments are  in Italian of course).

 Paolo is insisting that all good bathrooms must have a bidet and I say that bidets are for the French and the Italians but the rest if the world have managed quite successfully for centuries, indeed forever, without this contraption which takes up a lot of space.  The Malians have in fact got a very good solution, as everyone who has travelled there knows well: a sort if plastic kettle filled up with water stands next to the loo. Apart from this little misunderstanding the work is progressing apace- the drawings that is. I am not going to get possession of the place until the end of February, when hopefully the work will start.

Meanwhile, there seems to be some movement on the Palio front: that is of course the one thing that concerns the Senese. According to this article the Mayor and the chiefs of the 17 Contrade have come to the conclusion that there WILL be Palio this summer, come what may! Hurrah say I.

And what else?  Well, rather worrying news from Mali 🇲🇱... where they are being subjected to sanctions and closed borders with the CEDEAO, the neighbouring West African states. This is no doubt due to pressure from the French according to the Malians and everyone is most annoyed. The sanctions  are aimed at trying to get the ruling junta to organize elections and relinquish power if I understand things correctly. 

But not only that... Djenne which has been a safe haven in the midst of an increasingly dangerous and troubled Central Mali has suddenly deteriorated and Senossa, the Fulani village just a couple if kilometres from Djenne has been attacked  with several casualties. For the first time Babou, with whom I speak about library business every Saturday, said that he would not recommend that I go to Djenne right now...this is bad news indeed. We will have to see how things develop. My trip is planned for March, when I hope to see up the project in Gao too, finally.