Book Beginnings / Friday 56

MONIQUE AND THE MANGO RAINS by KRIS HOLLOWAY

"It was a struggle to keep my footing on the rough path through the maze of huts that made up the village of Nampossela. I knew the general direction to the birthing house on the outskirts of town. But the layout of the village remained a mystery, and unless I wass accompanied, I tended to run into dead ends or wander in endless circles. I was glad to be with Monique. In fact, since coming to Nampossela a month before, I was almost always with Monique."

"She introduced me to the ancient man and his wife. We sat and chatted. The elder man was a renowened feticheur and he offered to divine my future. Clad in the dark heavy weave of mudcloth, heavy strips of cotton cloth sewn together and dyed with mud....he sat in the shadowed heat of a closed hut and threw cowry shells in the sand. Through their arrangement he peered into time. He told me I would have no enemies in Mali. He said a white man in Mali would ask me to marry him. But these thing would come to pass only if I chewed  kola nut."fredasvoice