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Speaking Activity - A talk by Pepi Santillana Sánchez (Av2, 2008-2009) – About 700 words

My friend Thiemoko Dembele

Some days ago, I phoned Thiemo, a friend of mine, mainly to know if he was coming to FITUR, the International Fair of Tourism, that was being held in Madrid that weekend.

I first met Thiemo in 1993 in Mopti (Mali) where my husband and I were on holiday on our own. He was nineteen years old and was able to speak French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Bamabar and other African languages.

He took us to the Dogon region, a fascinating area where Dogon people live. He turned out to be a very good guide and took over every task in an impressive way. This trip was really tough -- it was a semidesertic region, it was very hot -- but Thiemo managed to solve all the problems we encountered. For instance, we had arranged to walk from one town to another for three or four days, but he decided to hire a donkey and a cart for us, so we could travel comfortably. During this trip I wasn't able to eat almost anything. We just had some crackers and canned tuna but I simple wasn't able to eat with all those hungry children staring at us. (Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, perhaps the fourth).

On another occassion, as we were talking with the Chief of a town in a kind of shelter where we were supposed to spend the night, I heard rats. (My husband and I had a row about that and Thiemo took my part saying that yes, there were rats!!) Eventually, we endep up sleeping in his own tent on the top of a house. I felt greately relieved.

We only spent five days with Thiemo but all the hardship we had to cope with in those few days made us very good friends.

In 1995 we got a phone call from Thiemo. He was studying in Italy and wanted to ask us if he could come to stay with us because he was having problems with the Italian family he was living with.

My husband and I talked it over and decided to host him. We had to get all the necessary documents for him to come to Spain. It took me over two months to go over all that red tape. He managed to get his student visa, was enrolled in a secondary school, the Satafi, here in Getafe, and lived with us for over eight months. Later he even got a grant to continue studying -- over 90,000 pesetas a month at that time. But he didn't go to class much. What he actually wanted to do was set up a travel agency in his own country. To achieve that, Javier, my husband, helped him to make a brochure on a trip to Mali, with relevant background information on Mali, to be given to some adventure travel agencies in Madrid.

Thiemo is so intelligent and hard-working that he succeeded at the very first go.

Two years ago we were invited to his wedding, in Bamako –- the capital of Mali. We were astonished. We already knew that he was very wealthy -- he had bought the hotel in Mopti, had many cars, land and houses. But we didn't expect to see so many people at his wedding! Even the secretary of the Consulate of Spain was there and one of the most popular Mali singers gave a show. The women were gorgeous wearing those beautiful African outfits. So we were fascinated.

I felt really proud of him, and also of ourselves for having had him with us when he needed it.

Well, Thiemoko answered my question saying that this year he wouldn't come to FITUR. He doesn't need to promote his travel agency any longer and it is too much trouble to come to Spain. So we hope we can meet again soon, probably next winter.