I have moved temporarily to stay with Jane, about 15 min walk from the mission down some dusty lanes and across a busy street, past the market, down again for two blocks . . . and it’s the one on the left with the nice hedge and overhanging bougainvillea. My room isn’t quite unpacked (or tidied!), and despite the hard clean I gave it yesterday the bathroom now shows evidence of the dust-storm this morning before the small rain. When I have a shower, the toilet gets a good soaking anyway, so that helps with the dust.
I went downtown this morning with 2 short-termers and a visitor to try to get the layout on foot since it has been confusing when just being taken with others in cars. With the rain still falling we made it there ourselves by taxi caught by the side of the main road, by guesswork and bad memory (of course we forgot our map!). I picked up the extra bit of material I needed, and a few household bits at a “$2 shop”- “everything 1000cfa” here - but prices varied from 150 (the cleaning cloth) to 2000 (the cheap towel for the pool).
On a shopkeeper’s advice we found a patisserie for a nice breakfast that also sold whole-wheat bread and advised us where multigrain was to be found in the future.
The others contended with the throng of hassling-batik-clothes-sellers while I went to look at African material urged along by my own little throng (there wasn’t many customers out there in that damp). A large metal box-structure was piled high with material in all colours and patterns to the roof in the normal 6- or 12-yard “demis” and “pieces”, and a young man sitting on the piles in the interior pulled out the ones customers were interested in. I didn’t get what I went there for, and resolved next time to take an African friend since I’m sure I gave in much too soon on the bargaining on the ones I did get.
We then got directions to the Western-style supermarket where you could get ham (at only $20/kg for the square sandwich stuff and $30+ for the nicer kinds) and cheese (starting at around $15/kg for cheddar, with pizza and Swiss-style cheeses at $30/kg) - and I got a soap dish and my weekly chocolate allowance: a Bounty for $2.20.
The girls came back with me to visit Jane, who hasn’t been feeling well, and for lunch we ate most of the bread with tuna, peanut butter (i.e. ground peanuts), jam, the popular processed cheese triangles on sale everywhere that don’t need refrigeration and mayonnaise (not necessarily all together). They were fascinated by Jane’s new pet - the tortoise (more next blog on him).
I went downtown this morning with 2 short-termers and a visitor to try to get the layout on foot since it has been confusing when just being taken with others in cars. With the rain still falling we made it there ourselves by taxi caught by the side of the main road, by guesswork and bad memory (of course we forgot our map!). I picked up the extra bit of material I needed, and a few household bits at a “$2 shop”- “everything 1000cfa” here - but prices varied from 150 (the cleaning cloth) to 2000 (the cheap towel for the pool).
On a shopkeeper’s advice we found a patisserie for a nice breakfast that also sold whole-wheat bread and advised us where multigrain was to be found in the future.
The others contended with the throng of hassling-batik-clothes-sellers while I went to look at African material urged along by my own little throng (there wasn’t many customers out there in that damp). A large metal box-structure was piled high with material in all colours and patterns to the roof in the normal 6- or 12-yard “demis” and “pieces”, and a young man sitting on the piles in the interior pulled out the ones customers were interested in. I didn’t get what I went there for, and resolved next time to take an African friend since I’m sure I gave in much too soon on the bargaining on the ones I did get.
We then got directions to the Western-style supermarket where you could get ham (at only $20/kg for the square sandwich stuff and $30+ for the nicer kinds) and cheese (starting at around $15/kg for cheddar, with pizza and Swiss-style cheeses at $30/kg) - and I got a soap dish and my weekly chocolate allowance: a Bounty for $2.20.
The girls came back with me to visit Jane, who hasn’t been feeling well, and for lunch we ate most of the bread with tuna, peanut butter (i.e. ground peanuts), jam, the popular processed cheese triangles on sale everywhere that don’t need refrigeration and mayonnaise (not necessarily all together). They were fascinated by Jane’s new pet - the tortoise (more next blog on him).
