Le sac

We were just coming out of a store where the girls had bought some dresses when I came across this guy that had an amazing bag. I asked him where I could buy something like that; he answered that it’s his business and he will sell me his. At first I backed off: it was his bag and I was going to go and choose from among others. But he insisted so much and pleaded that he needed the money, that I began to consider it. He empties what he had inside, telling me: “I give this to you because, you know, my friend, we are all the children of the world […]”. This sounded like some kind of phrase that I, a Westerner, was supposed to like, and I thought it to be just some kind of. He hands me the bag and we begin talking about the price. I decide to pay the unreasonably high price ($20=3+ times the Malian price), saying to myself that the guy needs the money (even this price came after a slight reduction because, well, there is no purchase here without bargaining). I told him repeatedly that I think I shouldn’t be taking his bag away, but he insists that it’s alright. I bring the bag home and decide to wash it, for it had really treaded the Bamako market and had gotten a little smelly as well..

Now, in retrospect, I realize a few extra things and think of some of buying this bag differently. First, the reggae line “We are all the children of the world” actually carried some meaning. It could have meant that he was as happy if I was wearing the bag he had made as if he would wear it. Or it could have meant that my buying that from him is a way for him to continue to be a child of the world (because he really needed the money, something which he actually told me). Either way, it was an idea that had mattered to him in the transaction, while for me it was had been quite irrelevant. I guess it’s really hard to make sense of what the “we’re all the children of the world” has to do with exchanging goods when one is used to buying everything from the supermarket.

Second, washing the bag was such a cheap reflex. I mean, if I really cared about the guy or loved the bag as it was, I wouldn’t have washed it. Being sympathetic doesn’t mean just giving money to the poor. It means being willing to live like them and push your expectations (sanitary or other) beyond your standard tolerance level. So what if it was smelly and dirty? Was I gonna get sick from that?

And finally, the whole episode just speaks about the position you are in as a richer foreigner when you come to such a country. We have so many people coming at us to sell stuff just because we have the money that they so desperately need. People come to the hotel from further away just to sell us things (last time this Touareg guy came we weren’t even here). And this nice guy was willing to sell his own bag. I feel so bad for accepting it, and then for washing off of it everything that had made it a real Malian bag.