I woke up. It was my last night I had paid for in my dorm room. Whew! It was going to be a relief to get out. I went down and there was no one in the reception. I would have waited, but I saw the annoying guy walking toward the reception. So I headed up. I brushed my teeth and went to the bathroom again--this time I brought soap for washing my hands and used the left hand to do the wiping and right hand to pour the water from the plastic teapot.
Then I went down again. The reception guy was there. I asked for a private room, but they won't have any until tomorrow. Dammit! Oh well. So I paid for 2 nights to reserve a room. Then I went up and packed and headed out to go to the Hotel Yamey which is right next door to the Appaloosa. As I was leaving the grounds of the Maison des Jeunes--you guessed it--the annoying guy showed up. He spouted a bunch of the same BS said he wants people like me "deported"--whatever that means. I started heading toward to the Yamey which is about a 5 minute walk. The guy followed me delivering his soliloquy of malarkey. Crap like people in Mali are good people and don't use weapons to kill others like in Europe in places like Bosnia and I think he said Latvia (?). I don't know why he thinks I am any more connected to these conflicts than he is to the conflicts in Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. But like I said, he just spouts meaningless BS. I accidentally knocked some stuff off a woman's table and bought the piece of bread I knocked over for a generous CFA500 (US$1). The guy said he would pay for it and I refused. I just wanted him gone. I told him I just wanted to go to my destination alone. I told him he made his point and that I understood what he was trying to say and that he didn't need to continue beating the same dead horse. He said he just wanted to talk.
Then, at the Shell station between the Maison des Jeunes and Hotel Yamey, I lost it. I just tore into him and then he into me. I yelled at the top of my lungs. I told him to stay the #$%& away from me. That he was bothering me and never left me alone and every single time he sees me he sticks to me like glue. He called me a racist. I told him the only people who have done that were manipulative scammers who are after my money and if he thinks my problem with him was racism that he has a screw loose in his head. I told him if he ever sees me again to stay away from me. I can't remember a time when I yelled like that. I have been so even tempered for so long. It was quite entertaining to the people at the scene. They were watching with curiosity. Some of them must know this guy since he is always (and I mean always) around.
I'll return to the Maison des Jeunes again so I hope he does stay away. I am so sick of the guy. I'm not optimistic. I'm sure he'll come again and try to talk to me. He does this sort of passive aggressive thing where he tries to be pleasant while telling me how bad I am and it wouldn't surprise me. We'll see.
Now I just have to wait for the plumber, his assistant, and the guy from the Yamey to finish fixing my toilet and I'll be relieved. My errands today are to send my absentee ballot form at DHL, scope out the Burkina Faso embassy, and to mail some postcards.
The Yamey is actually pretty nice. My room isn't big, but it has AC and a fan. Also a TV (French) and shower, toilet. The sink is a little small for laundry, but I'll manage. They have WiFi, but I can't seem to see it at the moment I write this. I'll either have to move my computer to the lobby or wait for it to come on.
September 15, 2008 10:45 Mali local time
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