Yes to Age Banding
I'm fed up of the hysterical language being used by children's authors in the ongoing age-ranging debate. Darren Shan has declared war. Anne Fine has called it stupid and cruel. Anyone would think the Publishers Association were proposing to coat...
The Passionate English Club
Harouna Sawadogo is the friendly owner of the Djibo Supermarket. It's not really a Supermarket, at least not in the Tesco's sense - the lights aren't bright, aisles aren't wide and the smell of freshly baked bread is conspicuous by...
Launch of Sophie and the Pancake Plot
Well, Sophie and the Pancake Plot is now in the bookshops, so feel free to boost the sales by picking up a copy or two for nephews/nieces! Albino Camel sold well, but Locust Curse was something of a lame duck,...
Painful Eyebrows
Almost every market day from October last year to June this year, Harouna and I would go off to the cattle market and sit down on a straw mat with a pile of cassettes and a pile of books. We...
Snaps from the last few days
The last couple weeks hasn't all been about refugees, thank goodness. Below: getting the straw off the roof before the rain comes! Below: Charlie making friends down by the lake Below: this lad is called Abba and is a regular...
Refugee update
Photos of Friday's aid distribution to the Tuareg refugees in Mentao A few more smiles in this album than in the last one, thank God....
Food Distribution to Tuareg Refugees
We went out to Mentao yesterday to distribute rice, oil, milk and plastic sheeting. Action Sociale is the local organisation charged with the refugee situation, so we invited two of their representatives to come with us. They suggested that we...
Refugee update
I went down to Ouagadougou last week to pick up Charlie (who is back from England) and to withdraw the funds you so generously donated - a total of 1000 GBP. Visited Mentao with Mark again yesterday to do a...
Who's afraid of roughing it a little?
Here is a link to the Sunday Times FESHIBA horse festival article. The finished article was hardly edited at all until it came to the 'How To Do It' paragraph right at the end. Looks like the editor did...
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who has responded so generously to my appeal on behalf of the Tuareg refugees in Djibo. It looks like we are going to be able to help significantly. I'll post details of the distributions as they...
FESHIBA Barani Horse Festival article in Sunday Times this weekend
Our Barani horse festival article is in the Sunday Times Travel Section this weekend. This is the first journalistic project that Charlie and I have worked on together so we're really looking forward to seeing the result. For those...
600 Malian refugees are setting up camp around Djibo
Mentao is a Tuareg settlement about 5k from Djibo on the Ouagadougou road. Mark's friend Mohammed lives there with his large family and many camels. I have blogged about camel-riding there on a couple occasions (here and here!). Hospitality...
African chicken coop plan
We have four French hens in our yard. Yes I know, how very 'Fourth Day of Christmas' of us. My design was based on the common Fulani grass hut. (If you need to know, here is how to build a...
Motorbike accidents in the Sahel
Another motorbike accident in Djibo today. This time it was Pastor Nikiema - hitting a hole at speed, on the way back from Weendupooli. He smashed his face quite badly but it'll mend. There seem to be a lot of...
