Ghani

This is Ghani.

We have been running into him lately when we've been going on our forest walks/jogs.  He has been grazing his sheep in the gully below our mountain track.

French is our lingua franca, and his is pretty good, although sometimes things get lost in translation.

We think his story goes something like:

He grew up in the Gjilan region.  He and his wife have had 9 sons, three of which have died as babies or adults.  He bought his sheep some years ago when one of his sons got hit crossing the road.  It sounds like his son was in intensive care - or more likely home care - for months.  He said he bought the sheep to get him out of the house and give him something else to think about.  He loves talking about his sheep.  He'll point out the new ones and link them up with their mothers and go into all sorts of details about their daily habits and personalities.

I've always wanted to take a photo of him but wasn't sure if he'd be up for it.  But the other day we were there and he said 'hey do you have a camera that you could use to take a photo of me and my sheep?'  We told him we didn't have one but that we'd bring one next time.

'Oh.' he said.  'Well someone is coming this evening to see my sheep and I think he's going to buy them all, so I think this is the last time I'll be with them'.

Oh no!  so sad!!!

Then we remembered that we had Romain's camera phone so we took a few pics.

We're going back for a walk this arvo so if he's not there I guess we'll know the sheep are gone.  And Ghani too!

Romain looking a bit buggered after his jog.
Ghani is usually a fairly sombre bloke, but he perked up for the camera.
He insisted that Romain pose with his knife.