Passport From Ghana Embassy To Burkina Faso Embassy

One of my goals yesterday was to find the Burkina Faso embassy so I could quickly get there after I picked up my passport from the Ghana embassy at 2pm. But, in the afternoon, I had a beer and a 1.5 liter bottle of water at Appaloosa instead. Hey, my hotel is right next door to it, so why not? And since I was virtually the only customer I could read La Route/The Road and ponder what to do next time I ran into the annoying people who called me racist for refusing to fall for their flim-flammery.

So this morning, I had to deal with moving from my nice US$45 room at the Yamey back to a barely passable $8 room at the Maison des Jeunes. They reception man said there would be a room at 7am. I showed up at 9am. Not ready yet--it'll be ready at 11am. So I went back, packed, showered (with hot water--so nice), enjoyed the last of my AC for a while, and then headed over at 11. I got my room. It's the smallest room I've stayed in so far on my trip, I think. Just 2 beds in a stuffy 10' x 10' room. OK for 2 nights, but boy will I be happy to leave Bamako. Actually, I think I'll be glad to leave Mali. Too many tourists in Mali. Burkina should be back to the way things were in Guinea--nice.

Anyway, the Lonely Planet map shows a road going off with an arrow saying the Burkina Faso embassy is 400m off the map. I walked to the Rond-pont de l'unité Africaine (a sort of arch of two arms holding up a globe) and turned south-west. I walked a ways and didn't see any Burkina Faso embassy. I did find the American embassy, though. We have a very nice embassy in Bamako. :-) I started looking on the side streets and after about an hour, I found it. It actually is probably just barely within the boundaries map in the Lonely Planet, if they chose to put it on there--it's actually probably right around where the words "Burkina Faso embassy" are located on the map. Basically, from the rond-pont, go either SW or NW one short block. Then go NW or SW, one short block. This puts you at the eastern corner of the huge Libyan embassy complex. The Burkina Faso is across the street from the Libyan embassy on the north-west side.

So I headed up from the rond-pont and soon came to a rond-pont with the first president of Ghana or something, and then to the rond-pont with the elephant. Then I just took a left and headed down to the Ghana embassy. I had some time, so I popped into La Marquise, a pizzeria and pâtisserie and got a nice croissant and a desperately needed Orange Fanta. I arrived at the embassy about 20 minutes early and apologized in French, though English should work just as well in the Ghanan embassy. I handed the woman my receipt for the passport. (Ghana's embassy is the only one that actually gives you a receipt for a passport. IMHO this should be standard operating procedure in all embassies.) She went to the desk, got out the passport, and handed it to me. I looked it over. Looked good. I smiled, thanked her, and headed out to go the Burkina Faso embassy.

I was there in about an hour. They require 3 photos, CFA 28200 (US$56.40), and 3 forms--two of which are identical and one that's a little bit different. I had to give my parents' names and an emergency contact, which is a new one to me. Then I handed it in and they told me to return at 15:00 tomorrow. So now I have the rest of the day to myself and all tomorrow morning to myself. Thursday, I escape the hustler den that is Bamako for Ségou--the next stop on the long trip to Timbuktu.

I came back to my room. I thought it was at the end of the hallway and unlocked the door. Then as I was about to enter, I noticed I was one room to far. So my key works in my neighbor's lock. Nice. That gives me warm fuzzies--NOT. At least, the annoying guy still wasn't there. Maybe he is taking a break from the Maison des Jeunes for a while. I tore into him pretty hard. Maybe he is having some down time to ponder his future and why he seems to provoke people into not liking him. But I doubt it. I'm sure he's out on his circuit looking for white prey.

September 16, 2008 15:51 Mali local time