human
If my mother could see me now, she complained.
gpt
After giving her all to get the apple of her eye through school, her wayward daughter winds up living with two men in the wilds of deepest Africa.
human
Huh! he said.
gpt
The next time you write her you might mention the fact that both of them are continually proposing to you and you brush it all off as a big joke.
human
Huh, indeed! Isobel answered him.
gpt
Proposing, or propositioning? If either of you two Romeos ever rattle the doorknob of my room at night again, you're apt to get a bullet through it.
human
Wasn't me. Look at my gray hair, Isobel. I'm old enough to be your daddy.
gpt
Sugar daddy, I suppose,
human
Wasn't me either,
gpt
Huh! said Isobel again, but she was really in no mood for their usual banter.
human
Listen, she said,
gpt
We're a king-size rumor campaign, that's what we are. We're breaking down institutions the sneaky way. He added reflectively.
human
A kinder way, though, than some.
gpt
But this ... what did you call it earlier, Jake?... this Cinderella act I go through perpetually. What good does it do, really? I contact only a few hundreds of people at most. And there are millions here in Mali alone.
human
There are other teams, too, Jake said mildly.
gpt
Several hundreds of us doing one thing or another.
human
A drop in the bucket,
gpt
No, he said.
human
It's a king-size rumor campaign and it's amazing how effective they can be. Remember the original dirty-rumor campaigns back in the States? Suppose two laundry firms were competing. One of them, with a manager on the conscience-less side, would hire two or three professional rumor spreaders. They'd go around dropping into bars, barber shops, pool rooms. Sooner or later, they'd get a chance to drop some line such as _did you hear about them discovering that two lepers worked at the Royal Laundry_? You can imagine the barbers, the bartenders, and such professional gossips, passing on the good word.
gpt
I don't recognize myself in the description.
human
Sure, only few score women in each town you put on your act, really witness the whole thing. But think how they pass it on. Each one of them tells the story of the miracle. A waif comes out of the desert. Without property, without a husband or family, without kinsfolk. Shy, dirty, unwanted. Then she's offered a good position if she'll drop the veil, discard the haik, and attend the new schools. So off she goes--everyone thinking to her disaster. Hocus-pocus, six months later she returns, obviously prosperous, obviously healthy, obviously well adjusted. Fine. The story spreads for miles around. Nothing is so popular as the Cinderella story, and that's the story you're putting over. It's a natural.
gpt
I hope so, Isobel said.
human
Sometimes I think I'm helping put over a gigantic hoax on these people. Promising something that won't be delivered.
gpt
I've thought the same thing, sometimes, but what are you going to be with people at this stage of development--_subtle_?
human
I hope there's something decent to eat in this place. Do you realize what I've been putting into my tummy this past week?
gpt
At least it keeps my figure in trim.
human
Um-m-m,
gpt
Hyena,
human
Hyena?
gpt
Sure, there aren't any wolves in these parts, she explained.
human
How long are we going to be here?
gpt
Well, we'd like to finish out the week. Guy named Homer Crawford has been passing around the word to hold a meeting in Timbuktu the end of this week.
human
Crawford?
gpt
Homer Crawford, some kind of sociologist from the University of Michigan, I understand. He's connected with the Reunited Nations African Development Project, heads one of their cloak and dagger teams.
human
Sociologist? I also understand that he put in a hitch with the Marines and spent kind of a shady period of two years fighting with the FLN in Algeria.
gpt
On what side?
human
Darn if I know.
gpt
Well, we have nothing to do with the Reunited Nations.
human
Of course not, but Crawford seems to think it'd be a good idea if some of us in the field would get together and ... well, have sort of a bull session.
gpt
We don't have much in the way of co-operation on the higher levels. Everybody seems to head out in all directions on their own. It can get chaotic. Maybe in the field we could give each other a few pointers. For one, I'd like to find out if any of the rest of these jokers know anything about that affair with the Cubans over in the Sudan.
human
I suppose it can't hurt, Isobel admitted.
gpt
In fact, it might be fun swapping experiences with some of these characters. Frankly, though, the stories I've heard about the African Development teams aren't any too palatable. They seem to be a ruthless bunch.
human
It's a ruthless country,