Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Bumps in the Road

Back in Dakar after another day on the road. I knew I was going to be moving around a lot, but wasn't quite prepared for the amount of time I have spent in a car.

We came from Tamba to Dakar in two cars. About a third of the way, the other one (a truck, actually; I was in a landcruiser or something) ran out of water in the radiator. Seems it was missing a cap, so the water was evaporating away. Not a good thing. Some kind of temporary solution was fashioned using a cloth and a plastic bag. The next town was no help, but the one after that had an auto shop, where a replacement cap was eventually found. Disaster averted.

Soon after the radiator crisis was solved, Carol, one of my travel companions, realized that her suitcases were not in either vehicle. OOOPS! After several phone calls (thank G-d for cell phones!), we enlisted the help of USAID staff who were at our hotel in Tamba to bring the luggage back to Dakar with them on Friday. It's actually something of a relief to know that this very competent woman who's been working in Africa for over thirty years, unfazed by anything, can make such a mistake. I went through the contents of my bag mentally and decided that if I had been the one sans luggage, I would have just left it all in Tambacounda. I need a new suitcase anyway.

The people in this country continue to insist on speaking French. Or worse, a bunch of other languages I understand not at all.

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