This is the closest it came to raining during the weeks I was in Mali. The wind blew a little, and the dark sky gave the Bani river and everything in Mopti new colors for a few hours. Later that day, a patriotic Ghanaian expat waved up at the sky and complained to me that these French-speaking people can't even get the rain right. "'Plooey?' Of course it will not come down if you call it that. It's embarrassed."