With advice from the African staff on what to say, and my studies earlier of landmarks, I estimated I had studied the route sufficiently to take the plunge and try to make the trip from the SIM guesthouse to IMS by walking and public transport today. Some times I'll be able to get lifts to the main road, but people going to town turn left - the IMS is to the right.
I walked down about 10 minutes to the main road, managed to cross at a traffic light betting that the staged car then bike lights would give me enough time to get accross, then started waving at taxis - not very often coming by. The first two were full, the third stopped and actually agreed to my "Zone Une?" enquiry. Then at the main road he turned left - and I thought of all that exra walking.
My fellow passenger in the back explained as the taxi then bumped off onto a dirt road that the taxi was going in deeper, which would save me time if I walked then laterally to my destination. But pretty soon I was the only one left so I offered him an extra 300francs (80c) to take me the 1-2 km extra, and he agreed. He gave me advice on what to say but warned it was very rare to find one like him coming in this direction. I may have to walk to the main road, take two separate taxis, and then walk from the main road in each direction.
I had more conversation about my future role, a hurried lunch of spaghetti with a 'spinach and fish' sauce, then went off to the market with the secretary, Josiane. She gave up her lunch time to show me around, and I picked up quite a few things in a very familiar environment of little sheds crowded together and bargaining.
Luckily we got a lift back so I didn't have to try the taxi number with the load of shopping.
Something else familiar was the yam chips sellers and the barbecued mutton along the side of the road not far from the mission we saw last evening when out for a walk - welcome when you don't feel like cooking or want to speed up a casserole. The meat here so far has been tenderer and less stringy than Benin, and nicely spiced.
I've had fun starting up and gradually finding people on Skype and reconnecting (?!) after some time with the free telephone service computer-to-computer, as well as using it once to call home at a good rate.
P.S. For those who want to trace my exploring route from SIM to IMS, you can email me and I'll send you the Google Earth files
