"But they are not people"

Neene and I were conversing one night about fruits and she proceeded to list the location of all major Senegalese banana plantations. A few nights later we are talking about luumos and she recites the schedule for the major luumos in all villages from here to Bansang. I’m about as interested as I would be were someone to read to me from the Yellow Pages, or a railroad station timetable.

I change the subject to the Pirahãns of the Amazon rainforest because at the time I was reading Don't Sleep, There are Snakes. I said the people will sleep in hammocks and they do not farm; they will pick what they want to eat from the bush, but cassava is there, mango is there... Neene is surprised to learn this. “Heh! But they are not people,” she tells me.

Then we talk about the famine in the Sudan. Mamadou overhears and says, "Sweden!" Neene corrects him, "No, Sudan." So at least she can distinguish Sweden and Sudan, even if Sweden and Switzerland remain one and the same.