Like a Trip to the Past
January 1, 2006
Forget New Years, I broke all of my holiday resolutions already. I always drag along that book on vacation. You know that book; it’s the one you bought six months ago because it looked really interesting and you haven’t opened it since. It’s there in my bag, right next to the unit plan I swore I was going to look over. Yet here it is, the last five days of my five week vacation and I haven’t looked at either one. I swear though that tomorrow will be the day I begin that rigorous exercise routine I promised to embark on as soon as we left home. Ah, well, there’s always next holiday.
We finally extricated ourselves from pretensionville. That place is nuts! I had the bill tallied this morning at which time I learned that they only accept cash as payment! Of course there is no bank machine and I have all but 6,000 cfa (about ten bucks) to cover our bill for four days accommodation. The dude told me I could eat breakfast, but then I needed to get in a cab and pay 2,000 cfa to ride to the ATM to get enough cash to pay the bill. Did I mention that the toilet didn’t fill on its own? In order to flush you had to fill a bucket with the hand held shower head. There was no way to set it up to fill on its own and the water pressure was so weak it took twenty minutes to fill the bucket. We waited over three hours for our meals and they moved us out of our room so they could move us back and now they’re pissing about ten bucks on a two hundred dollar bill. Fortunately, mere seconds before I went sideways, the French manager lady showed up and resolved the situation. I am so glad to be out of there!
Tonight we are on Ile De Goree. The tourist info says it was the major port for exporting slaves; Lonely Planet, however, suggests that this is not really true. Apparently there is some question about how many slaves actually passed over this island. I may never figure out the answer since we leave the day after tomorrow and tomorrow the museum is closed. The island is pretty cool though. You have to take a ferry to get here and there are no cars. The streets are cobblestone, the buildings right out of the eighteenth century. Walking around I feel like I need to be wearing breeches and a powdered wig (now that’s a pretty picture!).
Vacation is coming to an end. I’m happy and sad all at the same time. I learned a ton about Mali, music, and traveling in Africa. There were quite a few Peace Corps volunteers staying at pretensionville and I had some good conversations about the state of West Africa. Everybody seems to be of the mind that the region has no resources and therefore cannot afford to invest in itself. I’m not convinced I buy this argument. The governments are not bankrupt; Bamako and Dakar both display some serious wealth. It seems to me that if a country doesn’t work to help itself and its people, there’s not much else to be done. I am troubled by the fact that I don’t see any long term investment by the government. I understand that resources are limited, but that doesn’t absolve the government of providing basic care to its populace. It could begin with education about hygiene and the importance of proper disposal of garbage.
MJR
Forget New Years, I broke all of my holiday resolutions already. I always drag along that book on vacation. You know that book; it’s the one you bought six months ago because it looked really interesting and you haven’t opened it since. It’s there in my bag, right next to the unit plan I swore I was going to look over. Yet here it is, the last five days of my five week vacation and I haven’t looked at either one. I swear though that tomorrow will be the day I begin that rigorous exercise routine I promised to embark on as soon as we left home. Ah, well, there’s always next holiday.
We finally extricated ourselves from pretensionville. That place is nuts! I had the bill tallied this morning at which time I learned that they only accept cash as payment! Of course there is no bank machine and I have all but 6,000 cfa (about ten bucks) to cover our bill for four days accommodation. The dude told me I could eat breakfast, but then I needed to get in a cab and pay 2,000 cfa to ride to the ATM to get enough cash to pay the bill. Did I mention that the toilet didn’t fill on its own? In order to flush you had to fill a bucket with the hand held shower head. There was no way to set it up to fill on its own and the water pressure was so weak it took twenty minutes to fill the bucket. We waited over three hours for our meals and they moved us out of our room so they could move us back and now they’re pissing about ten bucks on a two hundred dollar bill. Fortunately, mere seconds before I went sideways, the French manager lady showed up and resolved the situation. I am so glad to be out of there!
Tonight we are on Ile De Goree. The tourist info says it was the major port for exporting slaves; Lonely Planet, however, suggests that this is not really true. Apparently there is some question about how many slaves actually passed over this island. I may never figure out the answer since we leave the day after tomorrow and tomorrow the museum is closed. The island is pretty cool though. You have to take a ferry to get here and there are no cars. The streets are cobblestone, the buildings right out of the eighteenth century. Walking around I feel like I need to be wearing breeches and a powdered wig (now that’s a pretty picture!).
Vacation is coming to an end. I’m happy and sad all at the same time. I learned a ton about Mali, music, and traveling in Africa. There were quite a few Peace Corps volunteers staying at pretensionville and I had some good conversations about the state of West Africa. Everybody seems to be of the mind that the region has no resources and therefore cannot afford to invest in itself. I’m not convinced I buy this argument. The governments are not bankrupt; Bamako and Dakar both display some serious wealth. It seems to me that if a country doesn’t work to help itself and its people, there’s not much else to be done. I am troubled by the fact that I don’t see any long term investment by the government. I understand that resources are limited, but that doesn’t absolve the government of providing basic care to its populace. It could begin with education about hygiene and the importance of proper disposal of garbage.MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 3:20 PM
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