Cherished Memories of Africa — Page 93
75 and distressed. It was getting dark. As we stood on the river bank in a bewildered and confused state of mind, Modou Sarr announced that he had left his identity card in the office of Mauritanian Immigration. He was sent across by a boat immediately. We waited for his return for quite a while but he did not return. It was quite dark by then and we had the problem of spending the night. We did not know anyone in that area. Nearby, there is a small town – Richard-toll; the only sugar mill of Senegal was based there and there were some hotels and restaurants as well. We decided to go there to spend the night and return next morning to receive Modou Sarr and then plan the next move. Ousman Darboe started the car. A few kilometers down the road, as we turned left, I saw a man standing there and asking for a lift in the car. I asked Ousman to stop and pick him up; that he did. The man said that his name was Biggy Sow that he lived in a village nearby called Crossmant and wanted to go to Richard-toll for an important task. We spoke about various subjects for a while. On his inquiry, we told him that we were Ahmadis and gave him a brief account of the jama’at. Then we asked him if he could arrange for us to spend the night somewhere. At first he thought we were joking but we asserted that we were serious, that we had come to that area for the first time and new nobody there. He told us that his friend had a house in Richard-toll where he could arrange for us to stay. We accompanied him to his friend’s house. It was a mud- house with thatched roof. We put some mats on the floor and rested there for a while. The host served us with some food comprising of millet and soup in a big dish. All of us ate out of the same dish together and thanked our God and the host as