Mom and Dad had many adopted sons and daughters. Mom and Dad were adopted. Undeniably, Abdi loved Mom. Abdi was also one of Mom's pet names for her real son, Andy. Abdi His face was terribly long and depressed. There were none of the usual jokes. His driving could almost be called sedate, and while I quite enjoyed the unusually reasonable speed and careful driving I was uneasy. Nothing very much, in the normal course of things, disturbed our project driver’s panache or his gallant Bedou style of driving. We depended on his self-confidence to deliver his services, from finding cigarettes on the black market to knowing which official to bribe. Every humanitarian aid organisation has an Abdi in Somalia, a Salvatore in Haiti, a Mohamed in Indonesia, a St. Pierre in Guinea Conakry. Nothing should disturb Abdi’s cheerful confidence to produce whatever was asked for. He had the physique of a nomad, brought up on an inadequate diet of goat’s milk, millet porridge, some meat ...
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head