Mali

While Louis is sleeping I thought I’d take a moment to let you know that we are here, we are well and our son is a complete poppet. TINY (lost even in six month Petit Bateau -thank you Gail!) but a handsome darling in whose eyes we could both go swimming.



The story so far on Day two:



The stars were not supposed to be aligned ….



Jill (thank you mum) had suggested we try and wait till 10.45 am for the auspicious meeting, Not 10.44 but 10.45. Fair enough. I had mentioned this astrological tip to the driver in the early hours of the morning on the way from the airport but forgotten I had done so in the excitement and indeed confusion of the next morning’s plans. When our driver stopped at 08.45 down a red dirt road by a petrol station and said ‘We will just spend some time here’ (some time, I presumed, meaning two hours while the director of the orphanage and our lawyer were waiting) I remembered. We decided to trust in the flow urged him to go on.



In fact the flow couldn’t have been more trustworthy or flowed better. We even forgot to have our own 10.45 union ceremony we were having so much fun.



The first smile came in the taxi after the mysterious hand-over at the orphanage in which we were told nothing about the little mite that was placed in our arms. Louis had already latched on to the pink triangular furry toy with a red nose whose tail executes a magical rendition of Pop Goes the Weasel (thank you Katta!) and it was to this soundtrack that Louis beamed at us for the first time. The afternoon was spent in a sort of delirium of not knowing which way up nappies go, kisses, games sleep and cuddles. Louis had his first nap laying on his daddy’s chest in our ‘luxury’ suite with its flaking walls and stained bath that disappeared in the radiance of our happiness. Julian is born to be a dad and is as natural a bottle feeder as he is a gourmet cook. For my part, I am singing to Louis a lot. I take him out on to the glass terrace overlooking the wide River Niger and sing Scottish ballads, nursery Rhymes and many of the songs from the thirties and forties I sang with my family as a child. I have to admit to having become a bit choked up on some of the lines of Moon River. Wider than a mile, I’m crossing you in style, there’s such a lot of world to see….Enveloping my baby in sound seems to be something I have waited all my life to do. It sends him to sleep within about six verses and gives me a warm fuzzy mommy glow.



There are still challenges to overcome: There seems to be nowhere in Bamako which accepts mastercard and we cannot get any money out to pay our lawyer or the gite or anything. We cannot get a British visa in less than ten days. We still are not sure when we will be able to come home with the French visa (though I am hopeful we can stick to the plan of the 23rd or even 21st). Louis is very underweight having suffered a gastroentiritus for which he had to be hospitaliased, and is still on baby milk though we are trying to introduce cereals. Our lawyer is asking twice what we agreed for all sorts of bribes and we simply have to accept, as without them we would probably (like the other 80 of the 100 French families selected eighteen months ago in the commission) still be without hope. It is VERY hot….the nightmares arestarting to come, perhaps now our little boy feels more safe...But the most important thing is our son is with us. We are all healthy and looking forward to seeing you all and that such lot of world together.