Cathy lights the kerosene lantern (note the setting sun in the last panel of page 22) and they sit down and talk (and eat bananas and peanut sticks - it's hard to believe that Cathy didn't have anything to offer to drink, but such things happen). This page represents a magical experience that most of us can relate to probably.
Panel 2: The caption says, "We talked into the evening. Djemina and I: tentatively, haltingly, as newly met strangers do. The language barrier didn't help, but somehow we managed to understand each other..."
Panel 3: Cathy says "Brenda a gwe na Bossangoa. [Brenda went to Bossangoa.]" Brenda, her postmate, had just returned from a vacation in Paris (I can't imagine how or why she did that), met Cathy briefly, found out that she had bedbugs, thrown her mattress out, and run off to get a new one in Bossangoa, the nearest city. I just had my house sprayed with DDT.
Panel 4: Djemina says "Ah, I like Brenda mingui! Lo yeke crazy! Ha-ha-ha-ha!.." "Lo yeke" just means "she is".
Panel 5: Cathy says "Yeah, she is a little goofy, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" I don't know how she managed to express that to Djemina. :-)
Go to Next Page
Date created: 1/3/97 Last modified: 1/3/97 Maintained by: Alan Saul alan@adale.org