Man, Montagnes District, Cote D'IvoireWe had asked
Paul to come to the hotel with the vehicle this morning at 08:00. He arrived at 7:30 as I
was having breakfast. This is quite a long string of early arrivals. I’m trying
to figure out if they mean anything.
I paid for our hotel stay and cleaned out my room. We were
ready to go right at 08:00. We loaded our gear into the Mitsubishi Pajero under
the care of a new driver named Losseny, and away we drove.
We drove to Treicheville, where the money-changers
congregate. The driver didn’t know where to go, and Paul couldn’t remember
either, so I got us momentarily lost before we found our way. A money-changer
spotted us form the sidewalk and motioned us over. He offered 580 francs for a
dollar. I negotiated up to 600. He led us to his “office” a closet-like room
behind a tailor’s shop. We counted out the bills in both currencies, and shook
hands at the end. Then we were ready to start out. I paid for about 75 dollars
of diesel to fill the tank and drove to the four-lane toll road that leads to
Yamoussoukro.
About two hours later we arrived and stopped at La Brise, our usually
restaurant stop in the capital.
Lee and I had pizza, the Tias (Madame is along
for the ride to visit her family near Man) had braised fish and our driver had
chicken. What we didn't eat, though it was on the menu was Agouti, aka the Greater Cane Rat....
We finished by 12:30 and were back on the road. Then we had
another adventure. Only about 15 miles from Yamoussoukro, the air-con worked less and
less well, and unusual noises came from both under the hood and from one of the
wheels. It got continually worse until the driver stopped to look. Something
was seriously wrong with a wheel, we would have to stop at a garage to have it
checked. We rolled slowly into Bouaflé and into the first garage we found.
Garage is a big word. It turned out to be a vacant lot with
cars and parts scattered around the ground, and a tin-roofed, open sided construction
equipped with some hard wood benches. We waited in the heat while the vehicle
was checked. It took half an hour to get the news: the compressor belt for the
air con was bad, and a ball bearing pack was bad on the rear driver-side. We
would not be able to use the air con for the rest of the day, but they could
fix the bearings and we could complete the trip if we didn’t mind the heat. Or
we could wait while a new vehicle made the 3 hour trip from Abidjan.
We could make the trip without air conditioning, so a
mechanic went off to buy the necessary bearing pack. A while later the mechanic
returned without having found the part needed. So we could not continue. Losseny
called Kramoko who said he would send another driver immediately with another vehicle. It would
take him 3-4 hours to arrive.
I suggested we try to find a place in Bouaflé that was
air-conditioned, so we could sit and wait without massive perspiration. A
passing taxi driver told us he knew a place, and dropped us at the very
optimistically named Restaurant Paradis, which
has one extremely anemic air conditioner in a large dark room. We sat at a
table under a ceiling fan to drink lukewarm beverages. I misunderstood the
mumbling server, and instead of getting a 1664 (a nice French beer from Alsace)
I got a Bock 65, which is the cheapest and worst beer in this country, possibly
in several others as well. I got caught up on my journal to that point.
We waited in the restaurant until about 6:00 pm when Paul
heard from the driver that he was leaving Yamoussoukro. We paid for our
beverages (and an eight dollars fee for using their “air conditioned” room) and
called the local taxi to come take us back to the broken vehicle. The needed
part still hadn’t arrived, but there were three mechanics sitting on the ground
around it.
Half an hour later the “new” Pajero arrived with a Kramoko,
the younger brother of a driver we’ve used on this run several times before. I
took photos of both fuel gauges, since I was leaving almost ¾ of a tank in one
vehicle and only getting ¼ in the next. That’s 40 or 50 dollars’ worth. I’ll
fight that battle when we pay for the rental.
We first had to refuel the vehicle to make the rest of the
drive. By the time this was done, it was dusk and rapidly getting dark. This
meant a long go because at night one has to slow down even more than usual
because of the potholes. We served around, often through clouds of dust coming
from unpaved sections, and sometimes because of construction having to stop to
let oncoming traffic pass before we could. This went on for more than five
hours.
We finally pulled in to Man about 12:30 am. We checked into
the Hotel des Cascades, and finally got into our rooms after 1:00 am. Then I
had to do some urgent work. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Rwanda, requesting
two documents needed for our effort to be recognized as a Church by the State. I was able
to prepare the documents, but I couldn’t send them because the Internet was
down. It seems to be down all over the country: no data access, no working
wifi. It’s just after 3:00 am now, and I’m finally going to bed. I’ll try to send the documents tomorrow mornings as early as possible.
mary
2020-02-27
What a frustrating day all around. As a reader I feel the tension just from following the account. Your patience with negotiating money, paying for the use of the air conditioned room, and waiting for transportation--must be a quality learned over so many years serving in with reality. We look forward to hearing that the paperwork is finished and the church in Rwanda is recognized by the state.
Dave Evans
2020-02-27
Though it seems somewhat evident that you are not greatly enjoying some of these quite stressful, and no-doubt draining, circumstances, it seems (as usual) that you do enjoy descriptively sharing them with us. And I suspect that provides you with at least a partial degree of recuperation. Thanks - you bring us laughter, though sympathy as well! :) Our prayers are with you! (And keep sharing! :) )