Protocol

Now, back to yesterday. We visited the offices of all of these guys whose actual responsibilities and jurisdictions are a mystery to me. The Prefet (?), the Maire, the Chef de Canton, the Chef de Village, and the government's extension agents for agriculture and natural resource management (NRM). Haoua and Moussa introduced us, and the officials introduced themselves, and then protocol was nicely and politely accomplished.
We dropped John off in his village first; it has a goofy name that sounds like baby talk...and then...my village. And here I am. As we drove up, through the sand and the wind and the sun, a crowd of kids (they always come in crowds here) swallowed the car and I could hear them shouting my name: "Samsiye! Samsiye! Kin dawo! (You came back!)" Several of the older boys dutifully lugged my stuff into my concession for me, and then we all made our way into the shade for a "Village Meeting," aka "Here's Samsiye."