The quality of exchange was hurting a bit out at the end of Niger. The children of Fachi, where we stopped the day after the eclipse for water, clutched pieces of paper with Filemaker printouts describing Messier objects, clearly given to them as souvenirs by astronomers. Gavin made a video on his cell phone of the children there fighting over a t-shirt. In the other minimal direction, Ellen bought a rock, a plain ordinary rock, from a tiny child in Fachi, just to reward the behavior of offering something in return for the cadeau that is begged.
