Getting into the groove... Slowly but surely?

So it's been a few weeks now and I'm finally getting into the groove. It has taken me a good two weeks to get the internet at my house (which includes all four visits we made to the government owned store named "ONATEL"... where it took not one but THREE workers to finally figure out what we needed to get connected. So I'm home now and trying to connect, and SURPRISE! It doesn't work! At this point Rogers cable looks like paradise. Lol. I never thought I'd say that. Ever.

So that's the internet... And no, I'm still not connected. Even after paying close to $70 Canadian, which is the equivalent of two pre-paid months of internet and the hardware needed to get connected. Good stuff.

So the taxis here are crazy. I know everyone is going to think, "But Afton, you can't be so prejudiced about the taxis there... I'm sure they're not ALL bad..." Hear me now... THEY ARE ALL BAD! Empirical evidence: Today I almost got run over by one... When it was MY right of way!! So thank goodness I braked fast enough to avoid hitting him or falling with the bike... All I have to show for this close call is a bruise on my left calf. I promise I will take a picture when I get a better internet connection and post it. If any of you have ever seen my rugby bruises... and those are bad enough... This is worse. But I'll gladly take it over actually getting into an accident.

So the food here (in Bobo) is waaay better than Ouaga. There was this restaurant in Ouaga that I mentioned in an earlier blog post – Paradisio... I would call it "le meilleur place dans le monde"... until I ate at Sidwaya in Bobo. Their petit poids are insanely good – and they don't even cost $2! They braise all kinds of things too – fish, chicken, filet, etc... I stick with the fish, though, since their "poulet byciclette" resembles %$#@ on a stick... hee hee...

So my neighbours' kids now have a new nickname... Gremlins (see picture). No really, I'm not kidding. You know how the gremlins would just botch whatever they could? Just to be annoying? That's what these kids do... And I took a picture of them when they all tried to mount my motorcycle at the same time a few weeks ago... Hilarious!

So today at ONATEL we spent a good 3 hours waiting for the entire store to get us internet... Let me tell you what customer service is like in Bobo-Dioulasso: You walk into the empty store and NO ONE comes to greet you/make you feel welcome/acknowledge you at all. Everyone in this country has at least two cell phones, so if the workers are not flapping their gums on those, they are "too busy" rifling through useless paperwork. So when we finally got someone to help us (who just happened to be a larger than life African woman wearing a Bright Royal blue mumu and matching headdress... I swear this blog writes itself), she insisted on interrupting us by answering her obnoxious cell phone in the middle of our explanation. At that point I was already thinking about how I would write this particular situation on my blog, when she asked me to take a photocopy of my id... Because every other store in the country has a photocopier and it is completely normal if not expected that the employees take the id and photocopy it themselves, I asked if she could make the photocopy. She then replied, "Well... that would mean I would have to get up and go do it...", so then I said smugly in English, "Oh, so you would have to MOVE to do it... NOW I understand why you can't make the photocopy!! It's all very clear now!!"... She was looking at me like I had two heads... And she still didn't budge. Very funny. So then my saint of a roommate went all the way down the street and took a photocopy of my id just so this woman could remain immobile. Unbelievable.