Omar and his tailors are making a right fuss of me, since they know I am leaving. Omar became tearful today when I started photographing the tailors, knowing I was making souvenir photos. The Nescafe guy brought me strong sweet coffee without me asking, and did not ask me for money.

"I heard that if in Europe your women have two or three children and then they stop," said one talkative skinny boy as he folded white shirts on the rickety cutting table. "You have it easy there!" he laughed, trying to imagine how cheap it would be to only have to feed two mouths. "You Europeans have made the right decision," he concluded, seriously.

Omar, on the other hand, had something pressing to tell me.

"Last week I had a phone call," he said, as he busied himself on the hem of his latest creation. "It was a Guinean living in Liberia. He said that he had seen the magazine on the airplane..."

One of my less inspiring money-makers is writing city guides for airline magazines. Each month at the end of the page I try to include a friend who I know makes good hand-made products. One month it was Omar, noting where to buy the cloth and how to find him, including his phone number.

"He rang me and he spoke to me in French. Then he asked if I was a Peul and we started to speak in Peul. Then he asked me if I was from Guinea, and I said, 'diarama'. He told me that he had seen my name and number in the magazine, and knew I was a Guinean. He said he wanted to ring to tell me that he was proud to see a Guinean succeeding and having his name printed."

Omar was moved, and I was a bit too.

"Then I had another call," he went on. "A Senegalese journalist living in the Gambia. He was coming to Dakar to write an article about tailors, and a friend of his in London had seen my name in the magazine and had passed it on to him. He said he was coming to Dakar to see me and Oumou Sy."

Oumou Sy is one of Africa's most famous clothing designers.

"This week he rang me again. He said he was at Sandaga market and where could he find me. I went to pick him up right away."