Wednesday 9 April 2008

A sad, true warning

A beautifully told tale of trying to do something, and just not being able to, has been scattered across Sophie Sarin's always readable "Djenne Djenno" blog in recent days.  In a small, light way it's completely heartbreaking that 14-year old, illiterate "guide", Fatumata is going to carry on getting nowhere. The tale, which seems to have ended with Fatumata's recent decision to ditch her links with Sophie and the hotel, and go off on another tourist-guiding-begging spree, is a sad, true warning that fly-in-fly-out aid and assistance is just a waste of time, ultimately (in fact rather quickly) doing more harm than good.

Photo: © Sophie Sarin, Djenné-Djenno Hotel, Djenné

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