pointing, nodding, smiling grunting & drawing pictures in the dry, crusty earth.

Next we were stuck for several days near a village
nestled at the foot of huge, beautiful, bare wind-sculpted mountains.
It was extremely dry, almost desert.
A group of passengers decided to walk the last 30 kilometers to their village
& departed across the nearly barren landscape.
It seemed that the truck was beyond repair.
We were simply waiting for another truck to come along.

The villagers were curious about the travelers, the truck and me.
I talked with people of the village in the universal language of pointing, nodding, smiling & grunting.

I saw women weaving round colored raffia mats & they insisted on giving me some.
The women wanted to feel my hands for calluses. They wanted to feel my hair.
My trip to West Africa is the only time I have ever been asked how I got my hair so straight.
I found I could make a connection, show my genuine curiosity and interest in them
by reaching out to feel their hair in response.

A woman invited me into her one room mud house.
A bed made of the same material as the house, & covered with straw mats
was built into one end of the room.
It took up about a third of the dwelling
The edge of the bed was finished with beautiful carved slats of wood.
The woman and I exchanged greetings, smiling , pointing, nodding.

I was invited into a huge walled courtyard & seated on the ground at one edge
beside the owner of the house who was the only one sitting in a chair.
Many gathered villagers were also seated along the edge of the courtyard.
A servant came through a door at the far end of the large open expanse
carrying a calabash which he offered to me a large bowl of milk to drink.

After six months in West Africa, I was eating just about everything.
meat in little market stalls.
Water when people offered it to me hospitably in their homes.
But unpasteurized milk was the last taboo.
I looked at the milk & looked at my hosts.
I looked around the courtyard at the gathered villagers
who were watching me smiling and curiously.
I smiled back, trying to figure a way out.
Not finding it, & expecting to die, I began to drink.
To my relief, it was wonderful, like yogurt.