Friday, April 10, 2009

Delayed return to Douentza

Well, getting back to Douentza turned out to be a fiasco. I left Mopti around 11:30 on Thursday and ran into Rabayah coming out of work on my way to the taxi stand. We exchanged a few words, lamented about our cancelled Bollywood party, then I headed back to Sevare.

The bush taxi stopped right in front of the post office, and conveniently, my new laptop battery had gotten there. I took care of that while Seydou came over to meet me for lunch. We went to the Mankan Te and had a very pleasant lunch. Afterwards, he dropped me off at the Peace Corps bureau around 2, and Dave and I went together to the bus station to try to get up to Douentza.

Overall, we waited for over 4 hours. I wanted to get on an earlier bus than Steve and Minkailou were coming up on so that I would be there before they got to Douentza, but every bus that came through was full. Finally, the bus they were on got in, and the guy had sold us tickets for that bus, but that too turned out to be full and they refunded us. I at least met Steve at the bus station and told him I would try to be up as quickly as possible.

I was really bitter after that bus left. Dave and I waited around for a while then decided it would be just as easy to go in the morning, since it was too late to get up there before them anyways. I was in a bad mood about that, having cancelled my plans to get up there that night, and yet here I was staying again, yet without Bollywood. Anyhow, we went back to the bureau, and after a little while, he and I went out and got street food for dinner before meeting up with some other volunteers and some army guys at a bar. I wasn’t really in a drinking mood, but since I didn’t want to walk back alone, I got stuck out until 1:30 in the morning in a very terrible mood. When we finally went back, I skyped a little while with Kevin to vent then went to sleep on the roof.

This morning, Dave and I walked to the bachet (like mini-bus/vans) station and got the last couple seats in one leaving for Douentza. The problem is that they pack these things to the brim: 5 people for every 4 seats, and there is minimal ventilation, and they go really slowly, and are generally extremely uncomfortable. This ride was no exception. It took three and half hours to get up to Douentza, an hour longer than it would’ve taken by bus.

I was glad to get in and finally get to talk with Steve, though. He’s a nice guy and I’m glad that I’ll have him around. I’ll probably help him get started with his work on Sanga-So in the next few days, so that should be interesting. He’s probably a bit overwhelmed by French and the new surroundings for now, but hopefully he’ll get settled in soon.

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