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March 21, 2006

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting...

I visited the director of cadastral planning in Ouahigouya this morning, to settle once and for all the question of our application to buy a plot of land on which to build Djibo FM.

On the door of Monsieur Nankema's office was a translation into French of Kipling's poem 'If'. It was the 1918 translation by André Maurois. Maurois was very liberal in his re-ordering of the original poem's lines and his translation starts with this stanza:

Si tu peux voir détruit l'ouvrage de ta vie
Et sans dire un seul mot te mettre à rebâtir,
Ou perdre en un seul coup le gain de cent parties
Sans un geste et sans un soupir

Literally:

If you can see the work of your life destroyed
And without saying a word put yourself to rebuilding
Or lose in one go the winning of a hundred parts
Without a gesture and without a sigh

When I was eventually summoned in to see Mr Nanema, the interview was short and sweet:

Nanema: Bonjour.
Me: Bonjour. Comment allez vous?
Nanema: Bien, et vous?
Me: Bien, merci.
Nanema: What were you writing out there?
Me: If
Nanema: Hehehe.
Me: One of my favourites.
Nanema: Me too.
Me: You have the dossier?
Nanema: Yes. Your application has been rejected due to lack of architectural plans.
Me: I have the plans here.
Nanema: You need to take them back to Mr Sassan in Djibo.
Me: Mr Sassan rang you yesterday, didn't he? You told me to come here.

Long silence - I notice on the wall at a certificate commemorating Mr Nanema's participation in the Table Tennis World Cup at Bercy (France) in the 90's.

Me: Table tennis?
Nanema: Yes.
Me: Do you still play?
Nanema: A little.
Me: At home?
Nanema: At the club. Take the dossier back to Djibo and start the process again.

On my way to the door, Mr Nanema stopped me:

Nanema: You came from Djibo today?
Me: Yes.
Nanema: How?
Me: On the bus.
Nanema: (Pause) C'est pas facile.
Me: Oui. C'est pas facile.
Nanema: Au revoir.
Me: Au revoir.

Posted by sahelsteve at March 21, 2006 05:03 PM