About four months after I returned to the US,
I happened upon a sidewalk sale in a small town in Ohio.
I wanted to buy a plant which cost 75 cents & all I had was a five dollar bill.
I asked the vendor if she had change.
Of course any vender in America will be able to change a five dollar bill,
but in the markets in Mali it might have been necessary for a young child
to run all over the market to find change for that bill!

The first time I heard a balaphone being played,
I fell in love with this instrument.
An old man was giving a concert on the street in Accra.
I listened for a long time
With the large crowd that gathered around him,
It took me 12 years to figure out that I could own one,
& another 8 years to find someone to play it!