Spilled milk!

Don’t cry over spilled milk--beat your child soundly!

One afternoon Fatou Bobo asked if I would give her money to buy sour milk. She said she would cook something sweet and share it with me. I love sour milk, so I said sure.

I waited and waited until nightfall... the sweet sour milk never arrived.

A few weeks later, Fatou and I are walking along, talking about her son Pateh. She says, "You did not forget you gave me money for sour milk? I did buy sour milk, but I put it on top of the table and Pateh saw it and grabbed it and all of the sour milk spilled. I kept quiet, I did not want to tell you, but that is the reason I never gave you the sour milk. I beat Pateh! But I could not beat him very much. You know, Pateh is not strong. If you beat him, he will fall."

Then she continued and described how Pateh is not well. He is pretty small, but I'd never realized just how small he was for his age until Fatou tells me he is older than Ous. When Pateh was born, Ous still had seven months to go. Fatou says Pateh has many papers from the hospital; she has even taken him to MRC in Basse.

"MRC did not say what was grabbing him?"

"Yes, they said. They said he was well now, but...he is not."

Then Fatou describes how she was very sick before Pateh was born and that is the reason why he is not well. Do I know jinnis? It is a jinni that is making Pateh to be this way.