It's Saturday. Breakfast is included in the hotel price so I went out at 9. Breakfast was just a baguette, jam, butter, and a slice of Laughing Cow. And coffee--an Americano--not one of those mini coffees you get in France and Morocco, but a full cup like in America. It was so nice to have a full cup of hot coffee.
I sat there reading the last few chapters of The Street Lawyer and observing those around me. I am the only English speaker. I woman sat at a table near me, I did a double take--she was cute. But then a guy showed up and sat with her. Too bad. The Scrabbler ate while studying something in his Scrabble book. Then he left. It seemed it had started to sprinkle. Hmmm.... SO far rain wasn't a problem since my travels started in the desert, but now I'm in the tropics during rainy season. I can handle sprinkles, though. I live in Seattle where it sprinkles all the time. Seattle is famous for rain, but so much of it is superlight rain that requires no umbrella.
Today I plan to walk down to the SocGen (Societe General--a big French bank unheard of by most in America until a juicy scandal last year.) and see if I can withdraw money. I might also look for a BICIS which is the local name for the BNP Paribas. In general, SocGen hands out only large bills while the BNP Paribas machines tend to hand out a few more useful smaller bills as well. I know there's one in N'Gor, the village halfway between here and the lighthouse. N'Gor would have the privilege of being the absolute furthest west point on the contiguous continent of Africa.
Other than that, my plans for the day are minimal. I'm having some laundry issues. I maybe don't use enough soap or maybe I'm putting it up in a place with too little air flow. It smells good when it's wet, but this morning when I smelled it, it was already sort of musty. I have a fan in my room, so after I let it drip for a while, I'll move it to the mosquito net posts of the bed where there is plenty of airflow.
Later today, I'll buy a bottle of water and sit outside in the cafe reading my The Road/La Route. I'll probably finish it up here.
I have to ask them for a space of time where I can stay for about 10 days or so so that I can get all my visas. I'd like to get visas for The Gambia (US$45? 2 photos), Guinea (US$40 + 2 photos), Guinea-Bissau (US$40 + 2 photos)), Mali (20,000 CFA or possibly US$100). I'm giving up in Sierra Leone as the visa is ridiculously expensive.
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Later--it's about 12:30. I went to the SocGen and was able to withdraw from my debit card. Whew! Now I'm set. I have enough to get me through for a while now. Until I start getting all those visas, at least. Oh, and the SocGen gave me the last 10000 CFA in small bills. :-)
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Now it's 5pm. I went out a while ago and decided to see what I could eat. I went to the Brioche Dorée which may or may not be connected to the Brioche Dorée chain in France. For 1200 CFA, I got a yummy chawarma (sort of like a gyro but with thinner bread). It has fries rolled up right in it. It was so good. A kid seeing me come out of Brioche Dorée asked if I'd buy him a cheeseburger, but I declined. They also have a pizzeria and bakery with yummy looking baked goods.
It's good to have my appetite back. I was not as mentally alert as I needed to be. I also have enough water. This afternoon, I drank an entire 1.5 liters of water while reading An American Tragedy which I started a few years ago, but haven't gotten around to finishing it. I was comparing my voyage to The Street Lawyer which I read from start to finish in the last 24 hours. The lawyer in there does something similar to what I'm doing. He left a nice job to help the poor. For him, there's no going back to him old life, unlike my situation where I expect to find something similar. And I'm not really helping anyone. Just sort of observing. I had seen the Dreiser book there on the shelf and was thinking about Sister Carrie. Dreiser had an influence on my blog in a unique way. In the book, Sister Carrie, Hurstwood has a bankroll he has to live off of. In order to make sure the reader understands how much he has, Dreiser tells the price of everything. It's fascinating. You can follow his bankroll down to zero. I really enjoying knowing the prices of things--and so in my blog, I make sure to list prices. I don't think my family and friends care about them so much, but anyone who comes across my blog while researching their own trip to Africa will find them useful.
While I was out, I passed by a quincillerie (sp?) which is a hardware store--more a booth really. I need a stopper for the sink, so I popped in and tried to ask for a bouchon pour le lavabo, but they just brought out pipes and valves. I tried to ask for a bouchon de (cow chew) pour arrete l'eau while holding my fingers in a ring about 3 or 4 inches in diameter. I don't know how to spell (cow chew) but it means rubber. In the end, they couldn't figure out what I was talking about so I left.
July 26, 2008 18:00 Senegal local time
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