Doing some editing of the blog

Yesterday's rains and storm and subsequent eletricity failure created a few dead ends and I lost a few items in 21 KILOS.

Optician -Ronald B.
After the eye problems I had last year, the optician was very supportive and I have ended up with numerous pairs of spectacles for all occasions. This in effect means that I get so confused and frustrated with all the pairs, that I end up not wearing any! But not being able to read means endlessly digging for reading glasses. And then the strong sunlight means I need to wear prescription sunglasses. If there it is anything I hate, it is people wearing these specs when they are addressing someone indoors. So I end up constantly apologising to people that I am wearing the specs for a reason. Signs of old age creeping in!!! But at least he gave me a couple of very good hard plastic spectacle cases which are ideal for sandy desert and rucsac conditions.

Paul F.
A loyal friend of Francis, Paul is a brilliant barber and I shall miss his cuts when my hair needs trimming. On the other hand, I have actually had it cut in a small village where the lack of sharp scissors did not stop the job from being as good as.....

Pete C.
Pete would not want to be called a son-in-law, but he has been a brilliant partner to Ingrid for at least 16 years. Quietly he gets on with things and one knows that his advice is sound. He was going to get me a sturdy small tent, but I then decided that it would be one weight too many. And this has been true. It is very seldom that a person travelling as I do with local transport, gets to a place where one cannot find shelter. It would have been different if I was in my own transport. His two pairs of thick socks, however, have been extremely useful in both the desert and the milder, wetter mountains. They keep the mosquitoes at bay and protect the feet in walking boots so that I just feel so safe wearing them.

Saori S.
Last year, when Saori returned from visiting her family a year after her uncle's death, where certain ceremonies had to be performed, she brought me a most delicately sculptured fan. I do not know whether the perforations have anything to do with it, but the air it creates seems to be much cooler than if I was to use a solid paper fan. There is something in this as the mottled shade from trees always seem cooler than that made by a solid roof. Movement of air, no doubt. The people in hot areas these days often use the fans 'invented' by some enterprising person which are now made in mass. Square pieces of woven plastic matting are nailed to a split-wood handle. Cheap and effective...... When I was in the Iron Ore train, I frightened a little boy by showing him the magic of my fan which so strangely opened. Other onlookers have all admired and wanted to try out this delicate but effective tool. In the melee of getting in and out of crowded taxis, one is most likely to forget or loose something and this is exactly what happened to my lovely fan. I hope someone in Burkino Faso has found it and treasures it...without breaking it first time because it's mechanism is so different from, to the locals, 'normal' fans