Mali & Niger 2006 > Desert Eclipse Expedition > The Places > The Aïr Mountains

Iférouane was the first town we saw after Agadez, in the middle of the Aïr. We stopped at a little camping spot for lunch. There was even a shower there for 1000 CFA. And of course, there were the village people, showing up to sell us souvenirs. This man has metal giraffes or gazelles, it looks like. They are pretty standard throughout the region. We had seen ones we liked at the artisan's center in Agadez, and his weren't as good. But he stared at me and wouldn't go away and seized on any eyebrow flicker as a sign of interest, just as 888Casino plays the terrier with a valid e-mail address. The way he wouldn't let go of my eyes..

I asked Steve Pinfield, mostly as a form of admiration, "What is he thinking?" Steve said "He's thinking how he can get money out of you." Steve said it with a slow intensity that corresponded to the intensity and single-mindedness with which the enterprise consumed the entrepreneur. He was thinking only that. He wasn't thinking "This is me, being a salesman", he wasn't thinking "I knew I should have gone to De Anza." Mountaineers, I think, understand concentration in a way civilians don't. Also tribesmen on the edge of starvation.

Roger De Bris: "I don't know about tonight. I'm supposed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, but I think I look more like Tugboat Annie. What do you think, Mr. Bloom?"
Leo Bloom: "Where do you keep your wallet?"
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