Walking 25km to get to a phone
Trip Start
Unknown
1
31
33
Trip End
Ongoing
Segou, Mali
Friday, February 12, 2010
This town was about 47km from a base station (cell phone tower) and was cut off from the country. With a 10m antenna the village was finally connected and the Prefet (sort of like a regional governor) gave a speech on how it felt to be in touch. The "operator" can now support his extended family and in 4 months he already has surpassed the average yearly income of $700. In another town a village that is regularly attacked by bandits has been able to have several months of peace as they can now call the local police.
On the way back filmed our roadside chef and guessing it was goat--cool stove--the rule is eat it very dead so you don't get sick. (No guarantee so don't sue me). Saw a man on a bicycle with 3 goats in his basket--and I thought I packed good.
Back in Bamako the nightspots are La Terrace, Blabla and L'Ibiza. I was entertained watching the ladies in 6" stillettos trying to walk around the bar without topping over and continued to torture my colleagues this week with my French--a frenchman asked me if i knew I had an accent--still trying to determine what the double meaning was. I bet him his suitcase would arrive on the day he was leaving and I won the bet. One did get me to pronounce budget correctly--bood j. And no that was not in the same conversation as the ladies of the night. Thursday is Salsa night at the Terrace--the instructor was there dancing with his students and I was imagining how much money he is raking in from lonely expats who fall in love. Speaking of love, the storefronts where decorated for the hallmark holiday of valentines coming up.
Other interesting factoids: Malian families never ride together in same car, they always split up. When you clink glasses during a toast, if a man taps the bottom of the woman's glass it means lets go have sex--the rule is not to do this in front of the wife's husband.
Off to the marche in the morning then to hell aka Cameroon.
