Sebastian
First met: bus to Dakhla, Morocco
Nationality: French
Strengths: speaks good English, charming, good at winking
Best moments: using a combination of French and charming nature to finally get some decent information for us in Mauritania, randomly re-meeting by a swimming pool in Senegal
Owen
First met: at breakfast in hostel, Nouakchott
Nationality: American
Strengths: knowledgable and well-travelled in West Africa, keen thirst for information about safety
Best moments: finally revealing his new job was in Israel (and he was a little worried about the presence of the visa in his passport)
Sean
First met: at hostel, Nouakchott
Nationality: American
Strengths: easy-going, easy-on-the-eye, gentle sense-of-humour
Best moments: being a slightly embaressed not very strong swimmer, describing the ore-train from Noudhibou
Gora
First met: in a shared taxi from Nouakchott to Rosso
Nationality: Senegalese
Strengths: good English, honest, compassionate, excellent at warding off touts
Best moments: helping us change money, finding the border entrance and carrying Anneliese's bag
Herrie
First met: at hostel, St Louis
Nationality: South African
Strengths: nice accent, interesting job, intelligent
Best moments: buying us drinks in his expensive hotel after recovering from severe food poisoning (after we took him to the hospital at 3am)
Quietman
First met: Toubab Dialoa
Nationality: Senegalese
Strengths: not too much hassle even though selling stuff
Best moments: giving us cafe Touba and walking us to the lagoon
Paco
First met: at hostel, Joal
Nationality: Senegalese
Strengths: eccentric
Best moments: explaining his surname
What was Paco's surname?
ReplyDeleteMaterson - he said it was unusual because it sounded english. He reckoned it meant the continuing cycle of life as 'ter' meant the earth and 'son' meant the sun. I think.
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ReplyDeleteHi! This is random post from an entirely random stranger five years after the original. But nonetheless -- I studied abroad in Senegal in 2007, including living a couple months in Joal. And I actually hung out with Paco Materson quite a bit, as I lived around the corner from him and was entranced by his art and, as you mention, general eccentricity. I have always wondered if he was still around, and just had the bright idea to Google his name for the first time. And lo and behold! Someone else had met him, too. I had always meant to help him sell his art when I returned to the US -- and had taken a bunch of pictures of it for that purpose -- but never got around to it. Perhaps this pure internet coincidence will get me to finally do it and try to get in touch....
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