Kara

This is Kara.  Sigh.  I think he's kinda dreamy.  This isn't the best representation of him, but its the best closeup I could find.  Most women think Kara is dreamy.   According to the locals, this is because he was born on a Thursday.  All men born on Thursdays are irresistible to women.  All women born on Wednesdays are irresistible to men.  Dontcha know?  What day of the week were you born?  I'm sure you are wondering now if you didn't know already, so I found this handy link...

General stats on Kara.  He's 52, I think.  He has 5 kids ranging in age from teenagers to a 2 year old.  He has one wife and unlike the typical Malian man, no matter what, wants to keep it that way.  That doesn't mean there aren't lots of women he "flirts" with.  He was born on Thursday.  

Kara was born and raised in Dionfacourou.  From what I can tell, since his father was so travelled and politically active, education was important to him, so Kara and all his brothers and it seems, even his sisters, all went to school a long ways, at least to pre high school.  

He is brilliant, in my opinion(may just be the Thursday thing...).  He speaks at least 5 local languages, French and even a fair amount of English.  

Kara has not been a full time diviner/traditional medical practitioner/good sorcerer all his life.  He's had quite a career as documented by a large photo album that he allowed Ian to bring home one day to share with me.  He travelled all over the region for a while with a West African theatrical troupe, as both a member and a manager.  He was a politician.  

He's been a hunter for a while.  He's done collections for American scientists.  He's supposedly the man you go to if you want hyenas.  When Ian met him in 2002, he was an animal parts vendor.  He still has some people selling things for him, he still hunts, but for the most part, now, he consults the sands, does sacrifices and helps people with their problems of all kinds.  Hes a therapist, a doctor a psychic and a magician.  He's a Renaissance man.  

Kara is a wanderer, a soul on a journey.  He's practiced both Islam and Christianity in his life, given them good shots, but decided neither one was for him, found the practitioners often not the good people they claimed to be.  And thats important to Kara, because beneath it all, he's a really good person and thats why we call him our friend.  Sure, he may drink a bit too much and smoke some things that we have no idea what they are, but he's always alert, always coherent and always wanting to give the best to his friends and family.

He leads a relatively normal life, despite his job, which is what it is.  Its a means to make money.  Now, he does believe in it, but its really just that, a job.  A way to support his family, a way to allow him to do the things he really enjoys in life:  spending time with his buddies, having a few bags of wine and laughing at crass jokes.  

My favorite memories of Kara while visiting Dionfacourou have to be in the middle of the night.  We ended up sharing a 7 foot by 7 foot room with him and M.  Marshall was adjusting to being in a new place and would wake up fussy.  Kara would literally crawl under our mosquito net and tell us what needed to be done.  And every time it worked even though my instinct was to do something different.  Ian now calls him the "Baby Wisperer" and we get great fun out of thinking about him having a show on TLC, helping people with fussy babies.